Primal Ranma
by datexan
Summary: Divergent This is a what if, what if Ranma became so enraged that he seemingly lost control. No deaths... yet... but a bit of bloodshed.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" and "Ranma and the Outers." I have not had a lot of ideas on them lately, but I will not let myself let them die as I have some of my Previous Tenchi Muyo stories. I am just taking a slight break from them to work on some other ideas that won't get outta my head until I write them down.

Primal Ranma

Ranma was madder than he had ever been in his whole, albeit, short life. Sure, he was mad when he was forced into the Neko-ken training, and he was mad when he got his curse. He was mad when he found out he had a fiancée, and even madder when he suddenly gained more of them thanks to his honorless father. As things kept piling up on him, Ranma's seething anger had just grown that much more, but he buried it deeper and deeper, as he'd been taught. Then to top it off he had to kill to save Akane's life; and not even a week later she was acting like none of that ever happened!

'How can she do that?' he wondered. 'I killed someone for her! I… I almost married her!' And then memories of their failed wedding came back to his tortured mind. After all he's been through, and had done… nothing's changed.

And now, here he was… struggling to stand up. Around him were the usual rivals out to kill him and to top it off, that pervert Happosai had snuck up behind him and used that weakness moxibustion on him again. He looked at the others and his rage was building.

It was refusing to be buried anymore, it was seething like a violent volcano ready to blow; it wanted out!

"Promise me you'll wear this and I'll remove it!" Happosai said gleefully as he held up a very sheer red lace bra and panties.

That was the last straw, it finally broke his will's back, years of pent up anger and aggression that had been building and building for so long went off in a single ferocious attack. What Ranma yelled was hard to understand as it seemed to be a cross between two languages… but the effect was stunning to behold. Even without his strength, Ranma let loose a series of what could have been vacuum blades, but they were purple in color and smaller. But never-the-less, very deadly.

The first one hit the panties and split them in half, next the bra with similar devastating results. But what got everyone's attention was that even as Happosai dodged those, another caught him… and took off his left hand in the middle of his forearm with a quick spray of blood accented by an inhuman scream from Happosai.

Kunö turned green at the sight of seeing the old man's arm being cut off. Mousse who had his glasses on for once noticed this and took several steps backwards, as he was not about to try his luck against those things. This left Ryoga, who just stared at the old pervert, and tried to make up his mind about what to do.

Ranma stalked towards his prey and the others where sure that if a cat could walk on two legs, then Ranma was that cat. And that meant that this was a very bad thing.

Grabbing Happosai, the man-cat looked at the obviously pained old man. "Rrrrremove it now… orrrrr die!" he said, which caused a shiver of fear to travel up the spines of his rivals, though they wouldn't admit it.

Happosai though, just clung to his arm and whimpered in pain, either not hearing Ranma or being in too much shock to believe what's just happened. Drawing back his arm to deliver the final blow he was stopped by a voice. "RANMA, STOP!" it commanded him. Turning his head, he saw Cologne holding onto her staff with a sick looking Shampoo behind her. "I removed it before, and I'll do it again. Don't kill him. He's not worth it."

The man cat looked between the old woman and then the old man for a few moments then finally dropped the old pervert. Dropping to all fours, he slunk towards the old woman. "Youuu… said youuu'd rrremove it."

Cologne took in a sharp intake of breath as she heard his voice after seeing his movements. 'This isn't good, I can't tell if he's in the Neko-ken now or not,' she thought then she spoke to him. "I did, turn around and I'll remove it." For a moment, he just eyed the old woman. Then turning his back to her, he sat down on his hind legs as though he were a cat and waited for her to remove the moxibustion. "This may burn…" she warned then touched the spot which caused him to hiss in pain.

When the pain faded, he stood up and flexed his claws and then his arms. "Feeels good…" he said before cutting himself off as he spun around and drew back his arm, purple claws at the tips of his paws at the ready, as though he was about to strike whomever he sensed daring to approach him from behind. However, instead of striking, he held back as Shampoo brought up her arms up in front of her as though she were waiting for him to kill her.

"Shampoo no hurt Airen," she cried out in surprise and a little fear while her whole body trembled. Instead of bringing his arm down, he just eyed her, which caused Mousse to level a death glare at Ranma, though he was not sure if he could survive an attack from those claws. "Is Airen ok? You no sound like yourself," the Amazon asked with a slight waver in her voice.

He stood there for a moment then let his arm relax as he figured that the girl was not going to try to hurt him. Sitting back down on the ground as though he were a cat again, he began to look around at the others. When he felt a hand on his head, there was a brief thought to attack, but he could not feel any malice in the touch. So instead, he let the hand stay there, though he did cast a glance at the owner of the hand.

Though her hand was trembling her voice sounded strangely calm. "Airen be nice kitty, yes?" She asked as she continued to pet him on the head. Seeing no harm in it, he leaned his head towards the girl and let her continue to pet him, which caused Shampoo to sigh in relief.

Cologne watched this and turned thoughtful before saying, "Come Ranma, we'll take you home," as she turned away from the others. Mousse was livid but he held himself in check. He'd never seen Ranma act this way when in the Neko-ken, nor had he ever heard Ranma talk while in this state. But what confused him was how Ranma entered it in the first place, as there were no cats around.

"Great-grandmother, we take Airen back to Cat Café, yes yes!" Shampoo tried to sound like her usual cheerful self, but her voice sounded strained.

"No, he goes back to the Tendo's."

Mousse breathed a sigh of relief at that.

"But why? Airen no mind Shampoo pet him." Though Shampoo had tied to sound calm and confident, almost anyone nearby could tell that her words were forced.

"That's not the point." She said sternly, "Bring him with you and follow me."

"Yes, great-grandmother." Shampoo said dejectedly. When she dropped her hand from Ranma he rubbed his head against her hand forcing her to continue to pet him. This allowed for Cologne and Shampoo to lead him back to the Tendo home.

After leaving the area, Mousse just let out a soft sigh. "Well, that was different."

"Verily, you speak the truth, but what evil work was that?" Kunö asked. He had never seen Ranma make any sort of death threats, let alone physically maim anyone. He himself wanted to smite the old lecher several times, but to see it like this… it made him a little sick, as well as very nervous.

"Evil work?" Ryoga asked.

"Did you not see the foul magic that the evil sorcerer Saotome hath performed?"

Ryoga looked lost. "Uh…"

"He means the attack Saotome used against Happosai," Mousse clarified.

"Oh… um it wasn't magic. I think I've seen that somewhere before…"

"Where! Where hast that Demon learned such a trick!"

Before Ryoga could respond, a weak voice interrupted them. "…Help… me…"

All three of them stopped and looked down at Happosai as he was trying to stand up while holding onto his arm. Though he was no longer bleeding, he looked pale as though he had lost a good amount of strength and blood.

"You demon of perversion! My pig-tailed goddess has spoken oft of you! I Kunö the Blue Thunder of Furinkan will verily crush you!" So saying, Kunö rushed the ancient perverted master, only to be flung easily behind the old man.

"…Please… take me to Ranma…"

Ryoga had never seen the old man ever ask for anything like that before. He sounded like his spirit had been crushed. "Um… okay…"

Mousse looked between them and nodded his head. "As long as you promise not to touch Shampoo again, I'll take you to Ranma."

Happosai looked at them and then nodded his head. "Agreed."

When Ranma arrived at the Tendo Dojo, Cologne had hoped that she could explain things before they got out of hand. But that was not the case.

"Ranma where have you…" Akane shouted only to see Shampoo petting Ranma's head. "Ranma no Baka!" She shouted drawing the attention of her sisters and the fathers.

"Child wait!" Cologne tried to say but before the first word had been finished, Akane charged Ranma with her mallet intending to hit him. However much to everyone else's surprise by the time Cologne started to say wait… Akane had been hit, hard.

"Oh my…" Kasumi said in shock as Akane's mallet lay in pieces scattered across the floor while Akane herself was clutching her stomach and lying against the wall, as she had been the recipient of a kick courtesy of Ranma.

Nabiki blinked at what had just happened. She never thought Ranma would ever doge those mallets, but not only had he not dodged, but he'd also not been hit because he destroyed the mallet. Ordinarily, she would be teasing Akane or Ranma about that, but the fact that with one kick Akane was sent across the room had her trying to figure out what was going on.

"My baby girl!" Soün wailed then railed on Ranma. "Ranma! You shouldn't treat your fiancée…" His words died in his demon head throat as there was a low rumbling growl coming from Ranma.

Genma was about to say something as well; but the look he got from Ranma, as well as the deep growl coming from the boy had him holding his tongue. Ranma, on all fours took several menacing steps forward; a ki-enhanced growl was being emitted from him that was causing the floor to vibrate. The man-cat took two steps forward and then hunched low on his front paws as he eyed the large bald martial artist. "Now… now… there's no need to…" Genma tried to say to placate his son.

"Lunchhh…" the cat growled out causing Nabiki to feel the ice that everyone says is in her veins as it flowed though her body. Never had she felt such fear before, and she prayed at that moment to never feel it again.

"Ranma!" Cologne shouted. "Stop that!"

Ranma's head glanced over at the aged woman and then back at his target. "I cannn smell yourrrr fearrrr…." Ranma told them and then grinned evilly at them. "Smelllsss gooooddd…"

"Airen… no… no eat them," Shampoo said trying to sound stern.

He turned to look at her for a moment which caused her to flinch before he turned back towards the others. "Ammm hungryyy…"

"Oh… Um, Ranma-kun?" Kasumi said to get his attention. Though once he looked at her she was suddenly wondering if that's what she wanted. "Dinner will be ready soon," she said and although she had her usual smile in place, everyone could tell that it was forced and that she was worried.

Accepting her words, he turned and leaped up the stairs, still on all fours before moving to the guest room. Once the door was shut, Kasumi lost her forced smile and let herself lean back onto the wall before realizing that everyone was watching. "Oh… oh my…" she said in her usual tone, and then hurried off to the kitchen.

Cologne sighed. "Everyone, gather around. I have some important information."

"This'd better be good," Nabiki said now that she was getting over the feeling of her blood freezing in her veins.

"Why… why is Ranma… acting like… that?" Genma asked unsure of weather or not he really wanted an answer.

"That I cannot answer, but I can tell you what happened just before this."

Nabiki and Soün nodded before they both moved Akane over to the table. She had been awake, though was in too much shock and pain to move. Even now, Akane felt like her insides were burning from that one kick. "What happened to him?" Nabiki asked since the rest of her family were having trouble trying to either speak or find the right words.

"Shampoo saw stupid Mousse and stupid stick boy attacking Ranma. Then lost boy try hurt Airen too…"

"So Mousse, Kunö and Ryoga were attaching Ranma again, huh. Well that's not anything new," Nabiki added drolly and was inwardly glad that she was back in control of her emotions.

"Is true! Then 'he' show up and…"

"Um he?" Akane asked though it hurt a little to do so. She wanted to be mad that Ranma was picking on Ryoga again, but she didn't have the strength yet.

"Happosai," Cologne aid with a sign. "He used the ultimate weakness moxibustion on Ranma again. This time, something… uh… unexpected happened."

Akane gasped when they mentioned the weakness technique again, and could not help but wonder, 'If Ranma was under that, then why'd that kick hurt so much?'

"What happened?" both fathers asked. They completely missed the elder's pause; though Nabiki caught it, and it didn't give her a good feeling.

Shampoo quickly covered her ears and closed her eyes so as to not see or hear anything, but her act in itself had everyone even more concerned. Sighing again, Cologne continued, "It seems as though Ranma has become tired of being pushed around. He cut off Happosai's arm with some sort of ki attack. I believe it was similar to one of your schools forbidden forms."

This was news to all of them. Nabiki thought she was going to be sick. "He… he cut off his arm…"

"Yes child, and he has regressed into the Neko-ken, without the presence of a cat, yet he still retains his ability to speak."

Genma swallowed hard and cast a worried glance to the stairs. "Will… will he come out of it?"

For her part, Akane was stunned. She'd known that if she'd been in Ranma's place she'd have blown up at everyone sooner; but to cut off someone's arm... Plus, the fact that Neko-Ranma had attacked her… it didn't make her feel very good.

"I do not know. But for now, tread lightly around him. He is acting as a cat, and a man. And as such he can be very dangerous."

"She's right…" A tired voice called from the doorway. When everyone turned to look, they saw Happosai being carried by Mousse… and Happosai was missing a portion of his left arm.

"Oh gods…" Nabiki muttered and backed away from them. And though Akane did not say anything, she too was shocked at seeing that he really had lost his arm.

For the two fathers though, to see the result of Ranma's anger, they weren't sure of what to say or do. For all of their trying, they had never really hurt their aged master, but apparently, Ranma had the power and ability to, even while severely weakened, and it frightened them. Especially if he was to turn such power onto them, they knew that minutes wouldn't begin to measure what time they would have left on the world.

"Cologne," Happosai said as he hopped out of Mousse's arms and landed with a slight wobble.

"Happosai."

"You did return his strength later, right."

"I did. It seemed the best way to calm him down, though he has frightened my great-granddaughter."

Happosai looked to Shampoo who seemed to still be covering her ears and keeping her eyes tightly shut. "So it seems, but the question is what are you going to do about the boy?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

The other occupants in the room could only gape at what was going on.

"He will either come out of the Neko-ken and remember nothing, or he will remember it all."

"That's... that's assuming he comes out at all…" Nabiki cursed at herself mentally for letting that waver into her voice.

"I have no doubts that he will," Cologne stated. "And then it's unknown if or when he will re-enter that state." She gave everyone a hard look. "So for your own safely, I would suggest that you no longer push Ranma around like you have been."

"WHAT! I haven't been pushing my son around! I've been training him and…"

"Genma, shut up!" his old master shouted causing both fathers to tremble.

"That goes for you too Akane," Cologne added as she looked at the youngest Tendo girl. "You saw what happened, you no longer have immunity."

"What do you mean?" Akane asked nervously, though she had an idea already.

Cologne smiled at her, though it was not a pleasant one, "You attacked him, and he didn't just sit there did he?" Sadly, Akane shook her head. "This is a warning, but not from me," she told them gravely. "Do not attack him, and do not provoke him. There is a good chance that we can prevent him from lashing out again as long as he does not have a reason to. That is not to say that the Neko-Ranma might just attack you in retribution for things in the past." The aged woman took one more look around the room then poked at Shampoo with the cane. "Come Shampoo."

Shampoo was about to open her mouth, but when she saw Happosai there. It was then that everyone was treated to a rare site, Shampoo began to tremble and Mousse grumbled something about Ranma. But he quickly looked around to make certain that Ranma wouldn't attack him for it.

"Elder…" Nabiki asked and when Cologne looked at her, she continued. "What happened to Shampoo?"

"Sh—Shampoo try get close to airen… after he… he cut off arm. But airen almost…"

"Hush child, its ok. He allowed you to pet him later."

"Shampoo know… still see anger in airen's eyes… make Shampoo feel cold just remember." With a waver in her voice and a tremble in her body, Shampoo walked out the door to go back to the Cat-Café. After a soft sigh, Cologne followed her out, followed by a grumbling Mousse.

Nabiki blinked several times after they left. "Shampoo's scared of him…" She resolved to make certain Ukyo knew, otherwise she could be hurt, or even killed the next time she went to get Ranma's attention. It may not have been a well-known fact, but it was known that nothing Nabiki did ever hurt someone physically.

Akane turned towards her sister and then looked back at the door where the Amazons had left. Even she had seen the fear in Shampoo. The girl was terrified, but she was trying hard to cover it. But that only made Akane feel even more insecure. 'I attacked him… and he…' she looked a the shredded pieces of her mallet and could not suppress the shudder that ran though her body as she thought of what would've happened if those claws had hit her.

"Soün, Genma, girls…" Happosai said in a serious voice. "Ranma has been pushed to the breaking point, and because of the Neko-ken training he's snapped." He let out a tired sigh as he thought of everything that they had done to the boy to push him, so that he would be the best, even if he didn't realize it. "Until he regains control of himself again, it would be easy for him to do this…" as he said that he showed them his stump of an arm, "…to any of you."

Both girls in the room felt sick as they thought of Ranma possibly attacking, or worse, hurting them. However, before either one had a chance to say a word, their father spoke. "Saotome?"

"Yes Tendo?"

"Do… do you think until Ranma can control himself… he should leave…"

"No father!" An irate Kasumi said from the doorway.

"What? Why?" Both fathers wanted to know.

"He needs us," Kasumi said simply. "If we throw him out, he may never come back." Though the oldest Tendo daughter was fearful, and a little nervous about Ranma being in the house as he was; she knew that to force him to leave would be even worse.

"She's right Tendo… he has scared away the Amazons, but there is still Ukyo that he could go to, and if he left here upset…"

"…Then he'd go straight to her and the schools would never be joined!"

"Oh brother…" droned Nabiki as the two fathers prattled on about how the schools may never be united. In a way, she was hoping for something to break them out of the idiotic mode they always seemed to slip into. However, she was not ready when the room became deathly quiet and a chill ran down her back. 'He's back…' she thought and then looked over towards the stairs to see him… Ranma was at least standing on his feet only. But there was a coldness to his eyes that remained.

"Time tooo eat…" he seemed to say and ask just slightly above a growl.

'Damn… he's still stuck like that,' She thought then looked at Akane and then Kasumi as she entered the room.

"Um… yes Ranma-kun… it's time to eat." Kasumi said trying to sound as though there was nothing wrong.

As he moved to the table on two feet, those around him could only watch in mute fascination, as his steps seemed to take on a grace that screamed 'cat.'

'At least nothing happened,' Nabiki recalled later. True dinner was tense, but there was no food stealing, no shouting and no fighting. In short, a very unusual dinner for them.

To be Continued.

NOTE:

Thank you Tai Kan. As an author I am sometimes plagued with the simple fact that what I see in my mind for the story, is not always conveyed properly. I have gone though and edited the section with Shampoo a little and tried to make it better. And I know she was raised as a warrior, though a little into the future some secrets of the neko-ken will be revealed. But I will say that Shampoo's nightmares later as well as the fear that people feel around Ranma has more to do with him, than with them.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" and "Ranma and the Outers." Although I have not had many ideas for them lately, I will not let them die as I have some of my Previous Tenchi Muyo stories. I'm just taking a slight break from them to work on some other ideas that won't get outta my head until I write them down.

Primal Ranma at School

It was too late, too late to do anything other than wish. Wish that she, Nabiki Tendo, had last night and today to do over again. She looked around the schoolyard at the shocked faces of the student body and she could sympathize, as she too was in a state of shock. Looking back at the reason for the shock was difficult, but it had to be done.

Hanging from the side of the school building, was Kunö, and not in a pleasant way. The kendoist had a silver katana sticking though his right shoulder which was pinning him to the wall. Kunö's feet were dangling just a few inches off the ground and she was glad that he was unconscious; otherwise, he'd be screaming in extreme pain.

Sighing, she thought about how this would affect Kunö and his idea that he was a noble samurai. Especially since he may never hold a sword again. His hand was proof enough of that. Nabiki could not bring herself to look at his hand; she had seen it once and it almost made her sick to her stomach. Even with her eyes closed, she could still picture his hand… hanging limply and contorted as though there were no bones in it.

When the attack came, it had been unbelievably fast. First Kunö's sword had been removed from his hand… and before Kunö could react, he'd been impaled on his own sword. She guessed it was lucky that it was in a non-fatal area, but it still looked quite painful. And then the last strike… Nabiki had watched, as the last punch was thrown, not at Kunö's face or chest… but his hand. The hit had been hard, and fast, but the sounds of bones breaking were clearly audible. Scant seconds after that Kunö had passed out from shock.

Trying to compose herself, Nabiki remembered what happened next. She watched in horror as Ranma drew back his hand like a cat would draw back its paw. But before the hit could connect, she had screamed his name. A shudder ran though her as she recalled that moment as it was frozen in her mind.

"RANMA!" Nabiki had shouted. Ranma turned to look at her, but his eyes just bored into her own. Catching her breath, she noticed that his pupils were now slit, and no longer appeared human. He held her gaze as she tried to say something, anything. And then suddenly his eyes returned to normal and he ran away.

'Damn it… why didn't I listen last night.' She thought angrily as she willed herself to turn and walk away from the gruesome site. As she tried to leave the school campus, Nabiki thought about what to do. "There's no doubt that school's going to be canceled today."

Just as Nabiki was about to go she heard a familiar but shaky voice, "Nabiki?"

"Kuso… Yes Akane?" Nabiki wasn't sure how her sister was going to handle this.

"What… what…"

"What happened?" Nabiki asked to which Akane nodded as she looked at Kunö's hanging form and tried to keep her breakfast down. "Kunö didn't learn anything. He thought that Ranma was 'Showing his true colors' so he decided to 'bring the wrath of heaven down on the foul demon Saotome,' or some such gibberish." Nabiki was thankful that she was looking at her sister so that she didn't have to look at Kunö.

"But… but…"

"The sword?" Again, Akane nodded her head. "That's the Kunö family blade that Kunö decided to use against Ranma, but… after he made his speech and charged Ranma…" Nabiki left the description hanging as all she had to do was point behind her to something else that was hanging.

"I… I... I'm…"

"Gonna be sick… join the club, no one's made it inside the building yet and I think schools going to be canceled for a while."

"Kami-sama… what happened here?" Another female voice said softly drawing Nabiki's attention.

Nabiki smiled thinly. "Ah Ukyo… I need to talk to you."

"Whatever it is I…"

"This is free, and it concerns Ranma… and the hanging Kunö."

Ukyo blinked a few times. "Say that again?"

"I'm going to ignore that for now," she said with a slight frown. "The information I have is for your own protection…"

"From who?"

"Ranma…" Akane said as she turned and ran to the other side of the school wall where Ukyo could hear Akane loosing her battle to keep food in her stomach.

"Um…"

"A lot has happened…" The mercenary said with a tired sigh. "Suffice it to say that yesterday Ranma was attacked by Kunö, Mousse and Ryoga at the same time and…"

"Is Ran-chan ok?"

"You'd better be worried more about others," she replied cryptically causing Ukyo to blink. "Anyway, Ranma was doing fine until Happosai showed up again." Seeing Ukyo look a little worried Nabiki pressed on, "Anyway, Happosai used that ultimate weakness moxibustion on Ranma again."

"Not that again."

Sighing, Nabiki could only nod her head. "Yes but what happened next was anything but normal."

"What was that?"

"Ranma somehow entered the neko-ken without there being a cat around and he cut off one of Happosai's arms."

Ukyo stood there dumbfounded. "He… he…"

"Entered the Neko-ken and cut off Happosai's arm."

"But he's never done anything like that before…" Ukyo replied in shock.

"He's also never tried to take off Shampoo's head, or kicked Akane across the room."

This got Ukyo's attention. "W-what?"

"Whatever happened, Shampoo saw it, and last night when we talked, she was scared of him. She even plugged her ears and closed her eyes when even a description of it was given."

"T-That's not possible!"

"I was there, I saw it." Nabiki waited as she let that sink in. "And then last night before dinner when Akane tried to hit him with her mallet again… well lets just say that Ranma used it as a scratching post and the thing had to be picked up in pieces."

"H-he… attacked them… both…" Ukyo said in astonishment.

"Yes and…" but before she could finish Ukyo was dancing around.

"Oh happy day! Finally, Ranma's decided to get rid of them and marry me! Oh Ran-chan… your U-chan is looking for you!" Ukyo shouted in a singsong voice as she began earnestly looking for her fiancée.

"Wait! Ukyo!" Nabiki cried out and ran to catch up to the girl who had run away from the school. "No… this isn't good…" she said worriedly.

After running for several minutes, not only had Nabiki lost sight of Ukyo, but she also didn't think she could take another step. "I need… to get… into… better shape…" Nabiki said as she came to a stop on top of a bridge. Heaving, Nabiki staggered over the side of the bridge and leaned over the edge incase her breakfast finally came out.

'This is bad… Ranma's out there somewhere… and Ukyo's trying to find him, but she hadn't listened to me at all…' Nabiki would have continued her mental ranting if her ears hadn't picked up the sound of someone crying. "Just ignore it…" she said softly, but the crying only continued. "It could be Akane… or maybe Shampoo… or… what am I thinking, it could be someone I don't even know."

No matter how much she wanted to ignore it, the more she felt compelled to at least see who it was. 'I'm getting too nosy…' she thought as she made her way to the end of the bridge and then down the bank towards the source of the crying. What she found under the bridge though, was not what she was expecting. "Ranma?"

Ranma was on his knees with his face almost touching the mud as the tears flowed freely out of his eyes. His hands were gripping the mud as though he had been trying to crush the mud in his hands, only to have it slip though his fingers. However hearing her voice he shot up from where he had been kneeling over and almost fell onto his back. "N-Nab-iki…"

"Oh… gods… Ranma what happened?" She asked as she shakily approached him.

"No… don't…" he begged as he fell backwards. "I could hurt you too…"

"Ranma… what… what happened?" Nabiki's world had been shaken to its very core these past two days, and seeing Ranma like this was the final straw.

"I… I can't control it… I… I'm so tired of it all…" He said as the tears kept coming, he just couldn't seem to stop them. "I… I hurt them… I almost killed Shampoo… oh gods… I attacked Akane… and… and… Kunö… kuso… I don't like him, but I don't want to kill him!"

'He knows…' she thought with more than a little fear. 'He knows what he did, but why can't he control it?' Steeling her resolve, she approached him, "But you won't… will you?"

"I… I don't want to… not even Happosai… I… I cut off his arm!" Ranma at this point fell forward and propped himself up on his hand and knees. "I almost killed him… and Kunö…" Ranma's strength gave out and he fell forward bringing his hands up to his face while propping himself up on his elbows.

Nabiki couldn't stand still; she had never seen anyone in so much torment. Striding forwards, she lifted him up off his arms. "Ranma…" she said softly as she looked at his tear-streaked face. He didn't reply with words; instead, Ranma threw his arms around her and let the tears fall. He didn't try to stifle them this time as crying wasn't manly; instead, he let the tears fall and fall they did, hard and fast. She'd never been good at helping anyone who was crying as she let Kasumi take care of that whenever Akane cried. But despite that, there was one thing she knew, to leave now would be worse than anything she'd ever done in the past.

It took some time, but Ranma finally started to calm down. "Feel better?" Nabiki asked as she tried to smile and hoped that he was ok now.

"I… I don't know…" he replied weakly.

Nabiki chuckled, "I guess that's better than…"

"NABIKI!"

"Ah damn…" Nabiki swore softly as she heard Ukyo's voice.

"I see what you're trying to do! You told me to beware of Ranma and that he's getting rid of Shampoo and Akane… so that you can steal him from me!"

"No! It's not like that!"

"Oh sure, its not like you and Ranma are holding each other and covered in mud… so how long have you two been making out? How long has this been going on?"

Nabiki blinked and looked at herself and Ranma then cursed her carelessness. Since Ranma had been crying in the mud… his arms and face had mud on it, which mean that she now had mud on her chest and her back. Unfortunately, her silence was taken as an admission of guilt since Ranma was unable to get his mouth to start working from the accusations he'd just heard.

"You were just trying to keep me away from my Ran-chan! You've always been in my way… but not any longer!" Ukyo said menacingly as she drew her battle spatula.

"W-what?"

"So this is where my Ranma-sama is!"

"Kodachi!" Nabiki's voice almost squeaked as she heard the mad voice of the insane gymnast.

"So mercenary one, you are trying to steal away my Ranma-sama from me!"

"What? NO! It's not what it looks like!"

"Oh, it looks like you have enjoyed your little romp in the mud with my Ranma-sama, but that was your last time with MY Ranma-sama!"

"MOVE!" Ranma shouted as he shoved Nabiki backwards.

Though her breath was taken away from the harsh push… the ground she was just in was torn apart by a battle spatula and several spiked clubs. "What…" she gasped out.

Ranma though had thrown himself backwards and now Ranma-chan was sitting in a few inches of water along the bank. But before she could say a word, she heard Kodachi gasp. "How…"

"So yoouu get it noww…" Ranma-chan said with a slight growl.

"It's not possible… how… what happened to Ranma-sama… where'd you… I mean… you were a boy… but now you're…"

"It's a curse Kodachi," Nabiki said as she glared at her. "Ranma has a curse that turns HIM into HER when splashed with cold water."

"No… it's not possible…"

Nabiki just shook her head as she looked at her. When she heard a growl, she looked at Ranma-chan and nearly screamed in terror as Ranma looked ready to jump towards her with those purple claws extending from her fingers. When Ranma-chan's body suddenly shot up and began descending towards her, Nabiki did scream and threw her arms up over her head with her eyes closed. However, when she didn't feel any pain she opened her eyes and saw small metal strips of confetti. "What?" Looking up, she saw Ranma-chan standing over her, with her claws still extended and glaring at Ukyo, who was holding a metal stick in her hands.

Ukyo looked at the remains of her battle spatula, a weapon that had been made of hardened steel and sharpened to be razor sharp… was now no more than a metal handle with the blade being reduced to hundreds of little bits of metal. "Ran-chan…" she asked as she looked at the angry redhead. However, instead of answering, the redhead just growled and flexed her claws. "Ran-chan?" Ukyo asked again with wide eyes.

"NO! I won't believe it!" Kodachi suddenly yelled. "I'll kill you both! Nabiki Tendo, you'll never touch MY Ranma-sama again and you… you red-haired trallop… I will not accept this… I will remove you from Ranma's existence!"

It was then that Kodachi attacked, but she soon learned that her ribbon, clubs and other equipment were like paper to Ranma-chan's new claws. Ukyo and Nabiki looked on in shock as Ranma suddenly leaped at Kodachi, which was followed by a terrified scream, and a spray of red as Kodachi fell backwards.

"Oh gods…" Ukyo said in shock.

Nabiki though was scared, "Ranma!"

"Get... outta myyy sight…" Ranma-chan growled out as she stared down at Kodachi.

Kodachi had never felt fear before, but right now, she knew true terror. No one had ever walked though her attacks as though they weren't there… but it's just happened, and then the red-haired girl had leaped for her and she screamed. What followed then was a searing burning pain in her face before she fell to the ground. The voice she heard was that of a demon… a demon she knew she'd never want to hear again. Leaping to her feet, she began running as fast as she could away from here.

Seeing Kodachi run off, Ranma-chan turned back towards Nabiki and literally stalked back towards the Tendo girl. For a brief moment Nabiki looked around and noticed that she was alone and Ranma did not look happy, 'Great, what happened to Ukyo?' she mentally asked before she looked back at the girl stalking towards her with the purple claws still extended.

"I smellll yourrrr fearrrr…"

She couldn't help it, she shivered at the tone but Nabiki just stood up straight and faced the girl. "I may be scared, but I know you're scared too." Ranma-chan just nodded her head and released the claws before padding towards Nabiki on four legs. Even if Nabiki had seen Ranma-chan act like a cat before, it was still unnerving. "Come on Ranma… we've got to get out of this mud."

Just after the words left her mouth, Ranma-chan had scooped her up and was airborne which caused Nabiki to let out a shriek of panic. Her panic lessened when she heard Ranma-chan chuckling. "Youuu wanted out of that mud."

Nabiki just groaned as she was set on her feet just moments later. This time she was on top of the bridge instead of under it. "I'll never understand how you do that."

The red-haired girl just shrugged and made an effort to stand on two legs beside Nabiki. "Wherrrrr to now?"

Looking around Nabiki discovered that they weren't far from the Cat Café, and she knew that at least Cologne would be able to help right now, though she was concerned about Shampoo. "Oh well, it's not like he's my fiancée or anything," she mumbled as she remembered what had happened the last time she had been engaged to Ranma and the Amazon had found out about it. Letting out a sigh, Nabiki looked at Ranma-chan and blinked at how the girl was licking her hand clean. "Ranma… stop that and let's get going. At least at the Cat Café we'll be able to get this mud off us." The cat-girl let out a low growl but followed Nabiki along.

More will be added in the next chapter, but I wanted to get this out so that Rubberneck, Wonderbee31 and glazedlookineyes101 get their quota for violence. I would like to thank Innortal, Silverscale, Dennisud, DerektheRogue, JohnnyG, Ranko and TopQuark for their encouragements.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" and "Ranma and the Outers." Although I have not had many ideas for them lately, I will not let them die as I have some of my Previous Tenchi Muyo stories. I'm just taking a slight break from them to work on some other ideas that won't get outta my head until I write them down.

I would like to say I'm sorry to everyone as I have been way too long between updates. I had originally thought that short chapters would allow me to update faster, but that has not been the case. In the future I will be making the chapters longer, I hope…

Primal Ranma Wants to Play

Even though Nabiki had mud on her arms, legs, back and chest, she felt good which wasn't something that she was used to. 'I guess this is why Kasumi always likes to help, makes you feel good and stuff… kind of annoying though,' she thought with a slight sigh. Beside her, Ranma-chan was doing her best to stay up on two legs instead of walking on all fours. 'I just hope Cologne will have some better ideas than yesterday considering what's just happened.'

That idea for hope died when she noticed that the Cat Café was not open for business. However, the door was unlocked. "Come on Ranma, let's go in. I think we're expected."

While Ranma didn't say anything, the girl did nod her head and allow Nabiki to enter. Once inside Ranma was instantly on alert, but nothing happened other than Mousse coming out and glaring at them followed by Cologne.

"Ah son-in… I mean Ranma… I'm glad you stopped in." Cologne told them and while Ranma missed her correction, Nabiki didn't.

"Calling him Ranma now?"

"Yes Miss Tendo. And you, Mousse… show Ranma to Shampoo's room. She wanted to talk to him. And Nabiki, I need to have a word with you as well."

She didn't like this. After what's happened already today, she didn't want any more problems. "I'm not sure that's a good idea."

Cologne just smiled, "And why's that Miss Tendo?"

"Let's just say that after what happened at school as well as under the bridge… it's not best to push him too far." Nabiki hoped that she could just hint at a few things… and leave it at that.

"Are you referring to how Ranma fought that Kunö boy this morning?"

Nabiki was trying to play it cool while wondering, 'Why did I think that this would be a good place to go?' "So you've heard."

"Indeed, I had Mousse go to your school earlier to locate Ranma or yourself and he found the boy being pried off the wall."

"Whatever happened, they had to ruin a good sword," Mousse groused.

"What do you mean?" Nabiki asked with a raised eyebrow. "When I saw it, the sword was only covered in a little blood."

"A little? Only!" Mousse wanted to yell but he was trying his hardest to prevent setting off Ranma. "The healers that arrived couldn't pull him off the wall, so they had to break the blade and then pull him off the wall."

This caused Nabiki to blink a few times. "They had to break the sword?"

"Yes, and I know my swords; that was a very old one, I would guess a family heirloom or something…"

"It was the Kunö family blade… the idiot brought it and thought that using it he could finally kill Ranma." Nabiki was shocked, 'The Kunö family blade… and they had to break it to pull him off the wall?' Nabiki turned her eyes only towards Ranma-chan and noticed that she was just sitting there on her hind legs as though she didn't have a care in the world. But Nabiki knew better, she could see the tightness in her leg muscles as well as the slight cup to her fingers. At any moment Ranma could spring into action and either seriously hurt someone or kill.

"I believe that you said that something else happened as well?" Cologne asked.

"Ah… yea…" Nabiki said in a daze before shaking her head. "I'd like to talk to you about that…"

"Very well. Mousse, get moving. Come along Miss Tendo."

While Ranma followed Mousse up the stairs, Nabiki took a seat at one of the tables where she began telling Cologne about what had happened. She told the old matriarch everything; starting from Kunö's attack to seeing Ranma cry, and finally how he saved her from Ukyo and especially about the attack on Kodachi.

"I see. This is a grave matter indeed. I'm glad that I had a talk with my great-granddaughter this morning."

"If I may, what was that talk about?"

Cologne sighed, "It really won't be much of a secret before long. But because of yesterday and how he's acted today as well as the nightmares that Shampoo had last night…"

"Nightmares… Her?"

"Shampoo is just a teenage girl as you are. She was taught to fight and to preserve Amazon honor as opposed to other things."

"Ah right."

"That is why we are closed today… Ranma is causing her nightmares. And that does not make for a very happy marriage." Nabiki decided not to comment on that for now though Cologne just cackled a moment. "I doubt that Shampoo got even an hours rest last night, and Mousse and I got less than that."

"Pardon me for saying elder, but it hardly shows on you."

"Quite. I have grown used to lack of sleep. However, since Ranma killed Saffron the Amazon village has been wary of him. And now that he no longer has full control of himself he's a danger to us." Nabiki eyes opened wide at this. "You're surprised at this?"

"Yes, though I guess I shouldn't be."

Cologne just gave her a knowing smile. "With Ranma now as a danger to us I have been given a task that I am not willing to do."

"What's that?"

"In order to keep Ranma from becoming a danger to the Amazons, then…"

"WHAT!" Ranma-chan screamed from upstairs.

Just the force of the scream was almost enough to make Nabiki and Cologne rush up the stairs. "Sounds like Shampoo told him."

"Told him what?" Nabiki was not sure she wanted to know this, as there were only a few things to prevent Ranma from becoming a danger. Kill him… or make him into a slave. And she knew that he would fight both of them.

"It's quite simple really."

"Really?"

"Either Shampoo and I kill Ranma or we make sure he never becomes a threat to the Amazons."

"You know he'll never let you kill him."

"Yes, and I have no desire to test myself against the Cat-Fist."

"So what will you do?"

"Shampoo and I have nullified both the Kiss of Death and the Kiss of Marriage."

Nabiki blinked and looked at the Elder.

Upstairs Ranma-chan was thoroughly confused. "Ok, so let me get this straight…" She said trying to sound calm. "Because I'm a danger to the Amazons… they want me dead?"

"Is true…" Shampoo said sadly, "but Shampoo and great-grandmother no want to kill Ranma."

"Yeah, you said that… but to stop being an Amazon?"

"Think about it Saotome," Mousse said from behind him. "Despite how I feel about it, Shampoo and the old mummy don't want you dead. I should kill you though… do you have any idea how many times Shampoo…"

"MOUSSE!" Shampoo yelled.

"Sorry…"

"Shampoo wish that Ranma love Shampoo… but Shampoo know better now… and Shampoo no think that Ranma be happy with Shampoo…" even as she said this, she began to get depressed. "Talk to great-grandmother much… see now that if Shampoo take Ranma back to village… then whole village in danger."

"But I still don't see why you have to renounce being an Amazon! It's always meant so much to you," Ranma told her exasperated.

"Is only way to… to..."

"Cancel…" Mousse said stiffly.

"Yes, only way to cancel kisses. If Shampoo no Amazon… then…"

"I get that part… but why're ya just giving up being an Amazon?"

"Because!" The young Amazon girl yelled at her now ex-airen.

"Because why?"

Tears started falling down Shampoo's eyes. "Because Shampoo no want Ranma to kill Shampoo's village. Aire… Ranma already kill Phoenix… what if Amazon's make Ranma mad… Ranma kill them too?"

"NO! I don't want to kill them… yea they make me mad but…"

"Saotome…" Mousse said getting their attention. "Please… this is an Amazon thing… Well it used to be. We've made up our minds. Elder Cologne is going back to China in a few days to make it official."

Ranma looked back at the mostly-blind boy and he could not understand what had happened. It seemed that just by him loosing control Shampoo was no longer going to be an Amazon… and neither was Mousse. But the strange part was that they both seemed ok with it. "I… I don't like you giving up… but if it's what you want ta do then ok."

Both Shampoo and Mousse nodded at him. "Saotome, here are some clothes for you…" Mousse said as he pulled a complete set of Ranma's usual of a red Chinese shirt and Black pants out of his robes.

"I'll never understand how ya do that…"

"Good. Though you should take your bath now, before Nabiki gets in."

Ranma nodded his head and taking the clothes, he left the room. Not even a second after he had left the room there was a purple blur that ran into Mousse crying. The male Amazon wrapped his arms around the crying Shampoo; he wasn't sure if he should try to kill Ranma or not because of this.

'If it hadn't been for her waking up every little bit screaming and crying, then last night would've been perfect,' Mousse thought. Even now, it was a bittersweet memory.

Shampoo had gone to sleep shortly after returning to their home away from home after leaving the Tendo's. But what she'd seen earlier haunted her dreams. However, instead of seeing Happosai get his arm cut off, she would have nightmare of Ranma killing Lin-Lin or Ran-Ran… or any of her other Amazon sisters. The worst one was when Shampoo found herself walking though the remains of a village that had been devastated by some sort of fire or demon.

Everywhere she looked; there was a dead body. "Lin-Lin…" she called only to find her lying bent over backwards on the fence surrounding the village. "Ran-Ran!" she had tried again… and just as before, she found the young girl lying in a pool of blood. One by one Shampoo checked over the village and every one of her friends, sisters, and extended family were dead. Earnestly she looked for another living being and quickly she found Mousse… fighting the demon that slayed her village. She found Mousse, fighting Ranma. Back and fourth they went, as Ranma tried to slice open Mousse, and Mousse just trying to stay alive a little longer. "MOUSSE!" Shampoo had called which proved to be the distraction that Ranma needed to slice the duck boy in half.

She had awoken from that nightmare screaming which brought both Cologne and Mousse into her room. And for once, she didn't mind him being there. Instead, she held onto her life-long friend and cried as she tried to tell them what she'd seen. Once she was calmed down and back asleep the two had left… only to be brought back running in less than thirty minutes.

Finally, the both of them had stayed in Shampoo's room. Cologne beside her great-granddaughter and Mousse holding her in his lap as she slept. It seemed that then was the only time that Shampoo had not had nightmares. A long as she was held, and protected by them both. Unfortunately for the other two, they were unable to get even half as much sleep as Shampoo and she only got an hours rest at most. Thankfully, for the elder she knew of a strong blend of tea that kept fatigue away from her and the boy so they could keep their constant vigil over Shampoo.

'My dreams have come true…' Mousse thought. 'But not how I wanted them. I should kill him for doing this to her…' even though he wanted to seek revenge on Ranma, Mousse knew that not only would it be foolhardy but Shampoo had begged him… begged him not to fight Ranma saying that she didn't want him to get hurt. 'I guess I should be thankful that she was thinking of me like that,' he thought morosely as he continued to hold the crying girl in his arms.

"Ok, so let me get this straight…" Nabiki said to Cologne. "Last night Shampoo was having nightmares which she kept waking up from screaming and they finally went away as long as both you and Mousse were in the room with her?"

"Correct so far Miss Tendo."

"But why? How? She didn't seem that bad yesterday?"

"There are things that people can hide from others. One thing is how they are really feeling. Yesterday she did a decent job of hiding it. But you have to remember Tendo, that even when the rest of us were talking about it, she was covering her ears and holding her eyes shut. Now does that sound like someone that wouldn't have nightmares?" Nabiki nodded her head as Cologne was right about that. Even she's had some nightmares last night, but not to this extent. "You see child, Shampoo was there when it happened, she saw into his eyes, and even from what I saw… it unnerved me."

"You… it unnerved you?"

"Don't sound so surprised. I may have seen many things in my three-hundred years, but this is not one of them." Nabiki just let out a tired sigh as things seemed to be changing too quickly to keep up with. "Why don't you go upstairs and get cleaned up, I'll have Shampoo bring you some clothes. It may take Shampoo a while before she finishes her talk with Ranma."

Nodding, Nabiki did just that. On her way to the washroom, she stopped by Shampoo's room and listened in a little. However, she could only hear two muffled voices; one male and one female. 'They must still be talking,' she thought and entered the washroom. Had she been paying attention as she normally does she would have realized that what she heard was Mousse trying to calm Shampoo. Entering the bathing area, had she been paying attention she would have noticed Ranma's clothes on the floor. As it was, Nabiki was lost in her own thoughts as she contemplated these new changes.

'So Shampoo gave up on him… and she's no longer an Amazon. But what about Mousse? And what are we going to do if the government starts getting involved now that Kunö's been… been…' She sighed mentally. 'I really need to get that image out of my mind.' As she thought of the former Fiancée Brigade and their suitors in the pursuit of Ranma, she knew that things were going to be changing drastically. Shaking off the last of her dirty clothes Nabiki had to wonder how she got mud in some of those places… to get mud there could have only happened when Ranma pushed her backwards to save her from Ukyo and Kodachi.

'I need to thank Ranma for saving me from them… again,' she thought as she stepped into the wash area hoping that they had some sort of supplies in there.

In another part of Japan, a young man walked through the wild with a large backpack strapped to his back. On top of the backpack was a bamboo umbrella. He stopped in his trek to consider what happened just less than a day ago. "Ranma... what happened to you?" He said as he looked around. He could still remember what happened during their man-to-man fight. 'I was just beginning to win and then those two jerks suddenly jumped in and ruined everything. And then that old pervert just made things worse. And then... and then...' Ryoga sighed as he recalled Ranma entering the neko-ken and cutting off one of Happosai's arms. "Man that was..."

His musing were cut short by a loud scream that pierced through the air causing the birds to scatter. "That sounded like Ranma..." He paused as he thought of that. "I wonder if Akane walked in on him or did he walk in on her... wait... AKANE!" Ryoga began to growl. "RANMA! How dare you do that to Akane! Hang on Akane I'll save you!" Completely forgetting what he'd recently seen, Ryoga charged off into the night to find his rival and punish him for whatever it was that he did this time to Akane.

It is hard to tell if Ryoga experienced a bout of good luck, or bad luck, for when he turned to run towards the yell, he ended up running away from it, as well as going in the opposite direction of the Tendo Dojo. However, there was one that heard his yell, and shook his head. "Ryoga, you are a fool," Konatsu said softly as the lost boy ran past U-Chan's. The cross-dressing ninja just sighed and idly warmed up some sake. "If I thought I stood a chance… I'd kill Saotome for what he did to Ukyo-sama," he muttered quietly. With the sake warmed, he walked to her room and opened the door quietly.

For some time the cook had been in her room, both crying and yelling to the heavens. In a moment of anger, she had lashed out only to loose the one that was most precious to her. 'Oh Ranma! What have I done?' she lamented to herself. 'If I'd just kept my cool then this wouldn't have happened.' Yet for all of her pain she could not help but stay angry at Nabiki. 'She played me… that … that… ARGH! I can't believe it! She played on my fears and got me so angry that Ranma attacked me! Me his cute fiancée!' She glanced up at Konatsu and took a sip of the sake he handed her. 'I'll get my revenge Nabiki Tendo... you won't keep my Ranma away from me!' As she thought this, she crushed the saucer in her hands.

Konatsu sighed softly as he watched Ukyo become even more enraged. 'What am I going to do? She told me what he did to that Kunö girl… and how he attacked her… so why does she still want him?'

More will be added in the next chapter, but I wanted to get this out so that Rubberneck, glazedlookineyes101 and Wonderbee31 could take the edge off their thirst for violence. I would like to thank everyone for their encouragements.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" and "Ranma and the Outers." Although I have not had many ideas for them lately, I will not let them die as I have some of my Previous Tenchi Muyo stories. I'm just taking a slight break from them to work on some other ideas that won't get outta my head until I write them down.

A word about the Amazons: I have received a few reviews that the amazons don't make any sense and how can they kill Ranma after he killed Saffron. Well, you know that their logic never made any sense, so why should they start now? First, there is the kiss of death. Come on, if someone is strong enough to easily been an Amazon like that on their home turf, then how can they hope to kill them later? And then there is the Kiss of Marriage. The guy gets no choice, it is their law, and they don't care about anyone else's laws. So if they are that screwed up on just those two, then why should they not be screwed up about wanting to kill him?

Oh and Rubberneck… I thought I had at least some violence in the last chapter… Ranma did rip apart the Amazon village in Shampoo's dream. But I guess since that was just a dream it didn't count… oh well grins that just means this one will have to be twice as violent to make up for it.

You know… Samurai Demon-God Sekikage, I am not sure what to make of your review. Were you being sarcastic and I missed it? If not, I am sorry this didn't meet up with your expectations, but if Ranma didn't show some remorse then this would just be a revenge story and not just a revenge/angst one. Though I do have to admit... though I like the angst, I can't keep it sad for too long. Must be a mental problem of mine. Shrugs Oh well, on with the story!

Primal Ranma Falls into Darkness

Ranma kept looking at Nabiki and blushing as they walked back to the Tendo Home. The pig-tailed boy knew that he was going to be in big trouble when Akane found out, but he prayed that she wouldn't. Especially right now as he was having trouble controlling his temper. Even now looking back on it, he still couldn't believe what has just happened.

While they were still at the Cat Café, the two of them were going to take a bath. So having walked into the bathroom sans clothing, Nabiki had to cover her ears as Ranma started screaming. However, for the former Ice Queen the look on his face was just too funny and she had started laughing uncontrollably while Ranma panicked.

After screaming for several minutes, Ranma finally calmed down and realized that not only was he not going to get hit, but she wasn't mad. "Nabiki?"

"Ranma…" she said as she finally stopped laughing. "We're going to have to work on your reactions; a girl could get the wrong idea when you scream like that after seeing them naked."

"But…"

"Don't worry Ranma-kun," she told him sweetly and surprisingly enough with a genuine smile. "I'm just going to get cleaned up and take a nice relaxing soak."

"But I'm still here and I'm naked!" Ranma replied in a panic while his face continued to turn a bright shade of red.

"If you think I am going to put those muddy clothes back on, you have another thing coming."

"I... but…" he tried to say in his defense but it didn't work as the middle Tendo daughter started cleaning herself.

Coming out of his musings, Ranma looked at the smiling Nabiki. 'I don't think I've ever seen her smile so much… I just wish I didn't have to be humiliated to get her to smile though…'

Nabiki almost skipped along after they left the Cat Café. Since her clothes were covered in mud, the Amazons offered her some clothes. However since they didn't have spare sets of her clothes like they did Ranma's, she received something definitely different. Instead of her usual pants and a nice top, or her school uniform, Nabiki was wearing one of Shampoo's Chinese dresses. 'I see why she wears these so much…' Nabiki thought happily. 'There's so comfortable, and they make me feel sooo good…'

Most everyone else that happened to see her as she walked by also had a good appreciation of the sexy dress as it hugged her curves much more than they did for Shampoo. This was mainly because Nabiki was slightly taller and it caused the slit in the side to not only show off her leg from the ankle up… but it didn't stop until it got to over her well rounded hip. The obvious result of this was that with every step any male on the street were given a very good look at her long, toned legs. At first, it had made her feel uncomfortable, but after seeing a number of men trip over themselves, walk into walls, lampposts and each other she couldn't help but laugh at their antics.

Of course, this also meant that anytime Ranma looked at her he would blush and if he tried to talk to her nothing but an incoherent babble came forth. After three blocks of walking, he gave up trying to talk at all and just tried to think of anything else but how she looked in it.

Because neither one was paying complete attention to where they were going, both of them ran into someone else.

"Oh I'm sorry…"

"It's ok… Nabiki said from her new perch in Ranma's lap on the ground. "At least its not mud…" she mumbled and could not help but be glad that Ranma caught her before she hit the ground. "Thanks Ranma…"

"Don't mention it," he mumbled from his position. With Nabiki sitting on his legs… and her back against his chest, he now not only had a face full of Nabiki's hair but to protect her he now had his arms wrapped around her.

"Oh my…"

"Wha… Kasumi?" Nabiki asked amazed.

"I… is that proper?" she pointed at her younger sister with a look of concern and a tinge of embarrassment.

"What? I like this dress it's…" Nabiki started then looked down at herself. Ranma's left arm was wrapped around her just over her hips in a barely decent way. However, his right arm was going straight across her breasts with his hand covering her left side. Needless to say he had a handful at the moment. "Having fun Saotome?"

"Ouch…" he mumbled from behind her, and then to the surprise of all three of them… his hand squeezed. "What the…" and then it squeezed again.

"Saotome…" Nabiki growled out.

"Oh my…" Kasumi intoned.

"I'm so dead…" the lone male moaned.

"Ranma?" he looked up at Kasumi and then realized he hadn't moved yet.

"Yea Kasumi…" He asked as he quickly let go of Nabiki.

"Why were you… fondling my sister?"

"Gah! I…" Ranma found out a brain freeze doesn't only happen when you eat ice cream too quickly.

Nabiki blinked, looked at her sister and then started laughing. After last night, this morning… and then under the bridge her emotions have been so completely overwhelmed that the incident at the Amazon's has finally gotten the better of the Ice Queen.

Groaning for a completely different reason now, Ranma realized that he needed Nabiki to get off his lap, as he was suddenly very uncomfortable in this position. 'But her hair smells good…' he blinked as that thought made him sigh again. Unconsciously, his arms clasped in front of the middle Tendo as he rested his forehead on her back just trying to come to terms with what was going on.

"Oh my…" Kasumi said softly as she looked at her sister and Ranma. They certainly did not seem to be acting properly. This was not how she expected her little sisters' fiancée to act towards her middle sister.

Finally getting herself under control enough to move, Nabiki found that she couldn't get rid of the silly grin on her face. She thought that smiling right no was a bit strange as just this morning she has gone from seeing Kunö nailed to the wall with his own family sword, which was quickly followed by Ranma running away in tears. Then Akane and Ukyo showed up and she has tried to warn Ukyo about Ranma, but then things turned for the worst under the bridge when Ranma attacked Ukyo and Kodachi to protect her. This was all nerve-wracking enough but to find out that the Amazons are giving up being an Amazon as well as Shampoo giving up on Ranma was just unbelievable. But even with all of that, she had walked in on Ranma taking a bath!

At that point, Nabiki had just thrown up her hands, and give up trying to figure out what was going to happen next and she did something that she had never thought of before. She took a bath, with Ranma. And now, here she was sitting in his lap, laughing her ass off in front of her surprised sister as Ranma holds her. 'This day can't get any more messed up!'

None of the three noticed the ominous thunder in the distance, nor a little old lady watering her plants just down the street.

With her sisters' help, Nabiki was able to stand back up, and then once Ranma stood up the three were again walking back towards the Tendo home. Along the way, Nabiki informed Kasumi of everything that she had seen so far, starting at the school right up to just a few moments ago.

"Oh my… but Nabiki… isn't it improper to take a bath with Ranma?"

"I was beyond caring at that point big sis. I'd just peeled off my muddy clothes and was looking forward to a nice relaxing bath. There was no way I was going to put those things back on again."

"Oh… I see…" Kasumi Tendo was now rather flushed at what she was thinking, though she seemed to keep herself aware as she walked as though it was second nature.

Ranma was a few paces behind them trying his hardest to not only not listen to them, but to not look at the movement of Nabiki's swaying hips, or the amount of leg that was showing every time she took as step as those two were having an emotional, as well as a physical effect on him. And right now, he did not need a reminder of how she looked earlier when she came into the bathroom. 'Why is this happening to me? He sighed inwardly. 'What's going on and why am I having so many problems just looking at Nabiki now?' Ranma then thought back to his rather one-sided history with the middle Tendo daughter. 'Every time I've talked to her in the past all she's done is take my money, make me feel stupid, and get me to do the stupidest things… I… I should be mad… angry… Like before with Happosai or Kunö…' For a brief moment as he considers these things he gets slightly angry, but hearing the two girls ahead of him giggle his anger vanished, and cannot help but smile. 'Damn it…' he groused as they continued walking.

However, the peaceful mood was unable to last. As soon as the three of them entered the Tendo home, they could all sense something. Stepping into the tearoom, they saw Genma, Soün and Akane already sitting at the table.

"Kasumi dear, can you get us some tea," her father asked.

"Yes father," she said quickly and went to the kitchen.

"Ranma, Nabiki, would you please come here and sit down."

"Um, sure…" he replied nervously.

"Whatever," Nabiki said and took a seat at the end of the table opposite her father. This put Ranma to her left and Genma to her right. Between the two fathers, sat Akane, but one thing the three had in common, was the serious expression on their faces. "So what's going on?" She asked nonchalantly, while feeling the tension slowly rise.

After a few moments, Genma finally spoke, "Son… Akane told us about what happened this morning at school."

Ranma's mood suddenly changed and instead of looking at his father, he bowed his head so that none of them could see his face, much less his eyes. "And?"

"And…" he started to say, but was interrupted by Kasumi setting down a kettle and pouring him and then her father some tea. "And since you seem to be having a problem controlling yourself, I believe that as your father and your sensei I am demanding that until you get control of yourself…"

"…And marry Akane!" Soün put in.

"Yes, until you can calm down, control yourself and marry Akane I am demanding that you stop practicing the art!"

Nabiki's eyes opened slightly at this, though Ranma remained silent.

"Boy, you have dishonored us and the school by acting so recklessly and foolishly that as your father and sensei I demand that you stop practicing the art until you can control yourself…"

"And marry Akane! The schools must be joined!" Soun again added increasing the heavy atmosphere in the room.

Nabiki sighed, 'those two are complete idiots… what?' she suddenly thought as she tried to take a drink of her tea but not a drop came out of her cup. Looking down into the cup, she saw the tea there. 'What the…' she thought as she looked at it only to realize that her tea, which had just seconds before been steaming, was now frozen solid. Looking at the floor, she noticed a layer of frost on the floor around Ranma. 'Not good…'

"You… you dare talk to me about honorrrr…." Ranma growled out causing the table to vibrate.

Akane who had barely been paying attention up until then finally looked up and then gasped at what she both heard and saw. However, what ever Akane saw, the two fathers failed to see. "Yes boy! It's time that you finally fulfilled the honor pledge and marry Akane!"

Right after saying that Akane let out a slight whimper and quickly ducked her head, essentially trying to hide under the table. Soün though let out a startled gasp and backed away from the table which was quite a feat since he was sitting on his legs. Genma though had his eyes closed, his arms crossed and an annoying superior smirk on his face as though he expected what he was saying was going to happen.

"You Genma… have no honorrrr…." Ranma now sounded more... feline than human.

Genma suddenly opened his eyes and he stared at his son. "What?"

"Youuu arrre nothing but a lying fat slob Genma… You have no honorrrr… you have no rrright to talk to me about honorrrr…"

Nabiki felt as though her skin was trying to crawl off her body just listening to Ranma's growling voice. But he still kept his head down so she could not see his face. Though she was wondering if that was actually a good thing.

"Now see here boy!" Genma shouted and grabbed Ranma by his shirt. His plan had been to throw the boy after that into the pond, but as soon as his hand came in contact with Ranma he let out a shriek of pain and rage.

Ranma casually reached up and grabbed Genma's hand, before twisting it and holding it at a painful angle. "Youuuu arrrre nothing…" Ranma said to him.

"Now… Ranma…" Soün tried to say, as Genma's hand was turning blue. However, this was not the color he expected to see; it was almost as though it was being frozen from the inside out.

Nabiki stared at Genma's hand in amazement, she knew that her teachers had told her that the body was made mostly of water, and she guessed that this was Ranma using the soul of ice on the water in Genma's hand. 'That's…' she tried to think of a word to use to describe this, but she felt at a loss for words.

"You darrre talk to meeee about honorrr… you pathetic useless…"

"Ranma!" Soün cried out hoping to help his friend but all he got was Ranma lifting his head to look at him. He knew that he was good with his demon-head technique, and he knew it kept people in line. However, what he was seeing made his demon–head look like a children's mask and Ranma was doing this with just his eyes!

Letting go of his fathers hand, Genma stumbled backwards as he held his hand close to him trying to get warmth back into it. Ranma stood up, though to those watching it seemed as though he floated up and then stretched out his legs to stand. Surrounding him was a battle aura that none of them had ever seen before. At first, they thought it was black, but it seemed to have a deep purple tint to its edges. But the worst part was that it allowed no light to pass through it as though it was a black hole on earth.

"I've endurrred yourrrr stupidity forrrr the last time Genma… I rrrememberrr what its like to be crrrring in the darrrkness… crrrying out to my fatherrr… only to be torrrtured one morrre time…" As he said this, several glowing claws appeared at the ends of his fingers. "Let me show youuu how it feels…" so saying, Ranma began throwing dozens of small glowing slaws at Genma.

Though he tried to evade them, Genma was not fast enough to dodge the dozens upon dozens of small sharp energy claws. Before the others could even realize what was going on Genma's gi and body was suddenly covered in dozens small bloody scratches. "All you carrred about was yourrr own fat belly… youuuu starrrved me… beat meeee… tortured meeee…" as Ranma spoke, more claws were sent at Genma, and more cuts appeared on the fat martial artist. "Youuu neverrrr carred forrr meee… I was just a way to get morrr foood… to steal morrre… and when I wouldn't steal you insulted meee…"

Nabiki was in shock at what she was seeing, this was worse that what happed to Kunö, at least that had been fast and almost merciful. From what she was seeing, she knew that Ranma was only causing pain, and intended to cause more.

From her position on the floor, Akane just covered her head with her hands and prayed to the gods, her ancestors, anyone that this would all end soon. Her father was not doing much better. But at least he knew it was too late. They had pushed Ranma too hard, and now he's cracked and there was no one that could save them.

"Let meeee show youuuu Genma…" Ranma growled and floated over the table causing the table to develop a layer of frost as well on his way towards his father.

Akane whimpered as she felt the cold darkness around her but it soon passed by her leaving her untouched, but she was not about to move. Not until this had passed.

Letting out a tortured scream, Genma tried to move away from his son, but soon everything around him was enveloped in blackness even though it was still early in the afternoon. "No son! Wait!"

"SILENCE!" Shouted Ranma, though the shout in itself caused the windows in the room to explode outward. "Let me show you the Neko-Ken… at it's fullest…" Ranma told him in a menacing voice that seemed to reverberate though the room causing thing to shake. Those things that were not stable fell over. "This is the blackness of that pit…" Ranma told his now simpering father. "The darkness iss complete… therrre iss no way out… let me finish what youuu starrrted… you tried to kill me then… let me end yourrr miserable excuse forrr a life…"

Nabiki and Soün looked at the blackness that seemed to surround Ranma and his father, though neither one of them could be seen. However, Ranma's voice carried easily and the two of them were practically rooted to their positions in fear. Somehow, Nabiki managed to look over at her little sister and noted that she was still alive, though too terrified to move. "Akane…" she called softly and forcing back the fear, she moved carefully to her sister and held her as the screams of Genma's pain from inside the darkness continued. Looking around, she pulled her sister away from the tearoom and after getting Akane out of the room, she handed her younger sister over to her older one that had been clinging terrified to the wall as though she were afraid it was going to fall.

"Nabiki… is that... was that Ranma… is he…" Kasumi asked fearfully.

"Yea, that's Ranma. I think the training and everything has finally overcome his sanity."

"What shall we do?" Kasumi asked as she tried to console the now crying and shaking form of Akane that she held in her arms.

"I… I don't know yet. But if this afternoon was any indication… if Ranma returns to his senses… he won't handle this well."

"What… what would he do?" the eldest Tendo asked.

"He didn't want me to come closer to him then because he thought he might hurt me… now I think he will either run away, commit seppuku or do both…"

"Oh my… Nabiki… you can't be…" Kasumi looked at her sister and then sighed. She knew Nabiki was serious, and she knew that if Ranma stopped to think about what he was doing, the he would do it. "You can't let him."

"What?" Now Nabiki looked bewildered.

The steel and resolve in Kasumi could almost be seen as it gathered strength in her. "You must not allow that to happen. We have to reach him, and help him regain control."

"Sis… you can't be…"

She was interrupted by a loud pained yell, "AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Both looked at each other and then nodded. They knew that something had to be done soon as from Mr. Saotome's last scream he was not doing well.

Stepping back into the room, Nabiki faced the darkness and she realized that this was the darkness in Ranma. This is what he had always been capable of if he just let go and stopped caring. "Ranma!" The blackness faded around the two Saotome's long enough for Nabiki to see the beaten and bloody mass that looked somewhat like Genma and the questioning stare of Ranma. "That's enough Ranma," she told him praying that her voice sounded firm.

"Thisss isss not enough!" he said and took several steps towards her leaving Genma in a bloody heap on the floor.

"Yes it is!" she responded and took several steps closer. Even from this distance, she could feel the overwhelming oppression of emptiness and dispair from the dark aura he was surrounded in.

"Nabiki! Please run!" Her father cried. However, Nabiki did not take her eyes off Ranma. When the two teens were standing far enough apart that his dark aura was almost touching her, Soün acted. "I'll save you!" he cried out and jumped at Ranma.

In less time than it took Nabiki to breathe, her father had jumped Ranma in a futile attempt to save her. Futile in that Ranma easily caught the man's arm, and introduced her fathers; face to the floor.

Holding his attackers arm straight out behind his back with the man face first in the floor, Ranma decided to teach this sniveling coward a lesson. "Sssso, youuu attack while my back is turrred… well… no morrreee… you'rrre life endsss now Soün… say hello to yourreee wife!"

More will be added in the next chapter, but I wanted to get this out so that Rubberneck, glazedlookineyes101 and Wonderbee31 could take the edge off their thirst for violence. I would like to thank everyone for their encouragements.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" and "Ranma and the Outers." Although I have not had many ideas for them lately, I will not let them die as I have some of my Previous Tenchi Muyo stories. I'm just taking a slight break from them to work on some other ideas that won't get outta my head until I write them down.

Note: Well, it has been some time since I've sent this to my pre-readers, but have only heard back from one so far. So I am going to post it as is.

Primal Ranma Walking in Shadow

It was not long after Ranma and Nabiki left the Cat Café, that Happosai approached it. Seeing that the door was shut and the closed sign displayed, Happosai did just what no one else would have thought of, he opened the door and let himself in. "Cologne-chan, you in here?" he called out teasingly.

"That is a stupid question Happosai," the aged Amazon said evenly.

"Ah so it is…" he said and sighed. He was going to put his hands behind his head but he was missing one.

"How are you feeling?" Cologne asked only slightly worried about him.

"Much better now that I've cleaned my aura."

"Oh?"

"Yes and I've come to see Shampoo and Mousse."

"Why's that?" She asked sensing an ulterior motive.

"This is the true Neko-ken… I have only run across it once before. It has a powerful fear aura, and since both of your charges were near, then it's possible that their aura has been infected too."

Cologne blinked. 'I've not even thought of that…' she thought to herself then asked him, "What does this infection do?"

"It causes terrible nightmares, those that have been infected before have sometimes taken their own lives to end them." He warned her gravely.

"Then Shampoo is infected, she has been plagued by horrible nightmares that have kept her awake at night. Had it not been for Mousse and myself being near her, I am afraid to think of what might have happened."

Happosai was surprised at the last part. "Mousse you say?"

"Yes, he has stopped acting like the village idiot and returned to the friend she had before."

"Humm, even though she's receiving comfort, she'll never be truly rid of the nightmares unless we cleanse her aura." He told her as he rubbed his chin.

"Then lets go," she said simply and led the aged Anything-goes master to her great-granddaughters room.

Upon entering the room, they were treated to the sight of a sleeping Shampoo who was cradled in Mousse's lap. Her arms were wrapped around him tightly, even in her dreams. Mousse looked up at them, though he did not release the precious cargo he held in his arms. If anything, upon seeing Happosai in the room, Mousse held her closer. "What are you doing here," he hissed quietly.

"I've come to help her boy," he said just as quietly. He assumed that from the tear streaks on her face that Shampoo must have cried herself to sleep in his arms. 'To see a proud warrior reduced to this,' he thought sadly.

"Mousse, Happosai believes that Ranma's Neko-Ken aura has infected and poisoned hers, which is causing her the nightmares."

The young warrior tried not to look too excited. "Then you know how to help her?"

"My boy, I would've though you'd enjoy the chance to hold her like this?" the aged master chuckled.

Desperately Mousse tried not to growl at that. "So what if I do? I love the fact that I can give her some comfort, but I'd give it up to have her back to normal. I love her; I'd do anything for her. If it took me giving up being able to do this to return her to normal, I would do it," he stated the last four words simply and slowly to make sure that there was no confusion.

Cologne looked at him proudly. "Mousse, you have shown your true character this day." She was about to say more when Happosai let out a startled gasp. "What is it?"

"I don't believe it… she's cleansing it herself…"

"So that's good, right?" Mousse asked.

"It's good and bad," he told the young warrior. "She's cleansing the poison out of her system, but she's not doing it on her own. Your aura has merged with hers now."

Cologne's eyes opened wide as a startled gasp was heard from Shampoo. "Oh… um… Shampoo you're awake," Mousse said to her nervously.

"Shampoo hear what pervert man and you have say." She told him and gave him a look that he never thought possible, a look of serious contemplation. Shifting herself in his arms so that they still held each other she looked at the two elders. "Elder, you say Shampoo… infected?"

"Your aura is child; it's a part of the Neko-Ken." Happosai told her seriously.

"Then you can fix?" she asked.

He nodded but then told her, "I can, but since you have used Mousse's aura to clean yours some, then that cannot be removed."

"I see," Cologne said softly. "Well then, let's get started."

The rest of them nodded and started on the cleansing. However, during the process, Shampoo never released Mousse, not did he release her.

While the three ex-amazons and the perverted master cleansed Shampoo's aura, another group of people were having trouble with two patients. "NAY! Verily I tell you that the Great Tatewaki Kunö, scion of the house Kunö, Rising star of the Kendo world, thus the Blue Thunder of Furinkan must have use of mine hand again!"

The doctor sighed and looked at the young man. "But sir, not only was every bone in your hand completely broken but with the extent of the damage there is no way that we could have repaired that damage. Not in a hundred years!"

"But…"

"I'm sorry sir, but there was no way to repair the damage, it was like every bone was turned into powder. Even if we put your hand in a cast, there is no way to tell how the bones would grow."

"But to have struck such a blow to such a Noble samurai as myself…"

"I'm sorry sir, but we did the best we could. Your shoulder was broken, or rather pierced by your sword and we have to keep your arm from aggravating the injury. We have already gone though several hours of intense surgery to stop the multiple levels of internal bleeding as well as sewing up the skin to leave as small a scar as possible… "

"But you have taken the hand of the greatest Samurai of the Kunö line!" Said delusional kendoist said as he held up the stump that used to be his right hand.

"I'm sorry sir, maybe in time you can switch to using your other hand, or maybe a prosthetic hand can be…"

"NAY! I refuse to allow my noble personage to be use for the ills of science and become a mockery of a man! I demand that you return to me mine hand!"

"But…" The doctor tried to say when a nurse entered the room and while Kunö's mind was on getting his hand back she used that distraction to stick a needle into his neck.

"Ouch! How dare you woman… you… you…" He then passed out and began snoring.

"I'm sorry doctor, but the other patients have been complaining about the noise he was creating."

The doctor smiled, "It no problem. I was having trouble getting him to understand. Obviously, he has some severe mental trauma as well. As soon as his wounds are healed enough, we will send him where he can get help for the mental stress he's been under."

"Well we keep him under sedation until then?"

"I think that may be best… How is our other patient?"

"She is under sedation as well…" The Nurse said as the two of them left the unconscious Kunö in the room. "After replacing the sutures three times across her face we put her under heavy sedation."

"Three times?" He asked incredulously.

"Yes, each time she has picked at the stitches until she has started bleeding again. The other nurses believe she is muttering something about deserving to be marked for attacking someone… but we cannot get any useful information out of her."

"Ah I see, so how are they lasting this time?"

"Better, but where as before she would have had a very light scar that could easily have been hidden by either mild surgery or make-up… she is to the point that the scar will be obvious for quite some time."

"What about cosmetic surgery?"

The nurse shook her head, "At this point it will be hard to hide that. Unless she spends a large amount of money on it, she will have a scar from over her right eye, down across her nose ending on her left cheek."

Wincing at that the doctor could not help but worry. "And more than likely when she wakes up and sees the scar she will be after us like there's no tomorrow."

Even as the doctors and nurses at the hospital kept their vigil over the two insane Kunö's, things were happening at the Tendo Dojo.

Holding his attackers arm straight out behind his back with the man face first in the floor, Ranma decided to teach this sniveling coward a lesson. "Sssso, youuu attack while my back is turrred… well… no morrreee… you'rrre life endsss now Soün… say hello to yourreee wife!"

Kasumi's eyes opened wide when she heard what Ranma said and her heart stopped for several long moments. 'No… please no… not daddy too…'

In her arms, Akane thankfully had not heard what Ranma had yelled, as she was too busy trying to block out the sights and sounds around her. 'What happened… how'd this happen?' she thought to herself frantically. 'Ranma was just fighting everyone as usual and hen he just snapped… why… what happened?'

In the tearoom, Nabiki didn't know what overtook her when she saw Ranma draw back his arm to end her fathers' life. Instead of being frozen in place, she acted.

Ranma was quite surprised when a body tackled him to the floor. The body had one arm around him while another hand was holding his arm up in the air. From his position on his back he was about to say something when the body began trembling. Through the haze of his anger, Ranma slowly recognized the body as Nabiki, especially when she began pleading with him.

"Please don't kill him Ranma! I know you're mad… but don't take my daddy away from me!" Had Nabiki been in better control of herself she might have used different words, but now was not the time to sit back and think. "I know you hate him and I know daddy abandoned us... but don't take him away… please?"

Ranma's black aura winked out and the room temperature rose quickly as her crying and pleading cut though any attempts by him to be angry. But now that he was returning to himself, he could recall with crystal clarity everything that he's just done. Attacking his father, Mr. Tendo and then having almost trying to kill Soün, only to be stopped by Nabiki. Slowly, Nabiki's pleading got though to him and he realized that she, the Ice Queen was begging for her fathers' life. 'What have I done?'

By now, Nabiki had been reduced to tears as she kept pleading with Ranma to spare her fathers life. Slowly Ranma's trembling arms wrapped around the middle Tendo. "What… what have I done…" he asked as the tears started to form in his eyes. "Please… kami… tell me I didn't just…"

Not far from them, Soün slowly began to push himself up off the floor. "I'm alive…" sitting up onto his knees he looked over at his daughter and Ranma on the floor. Slowly his mind was able to filter what his daughter was saying as she cried. 'She's… begging for my life…' he thought and as he realized she was saying that even though he abandoned them… she still wants him around. 'I… I didn't abandon them… I…' even as he tried to deny it, his eyes were opened for the first time.

Hearing a noise, Soün looked at the entry to the tearoom and from here, he could see Kasumi sitting there, but in her lap was his youngest daughter. Hearing Akane's crying tore at his heart. 'What have we done?' he thought. In precise clarity, his mind replayed to him every time that Ranma and Akane fought as well as how both Ranma and Akane looked last night after Ranma lost his control the first time. Yet that was not all. He could also recall how when Akane came rushing home from school today and told them about how Ranma fought Kunö today. The plan seemed simple, get Ranma to stop practicing the art until he could control himself and then marry Akane and then everything would be fine. Perfect.

'But that didn't happen…' he thought remorsely. Looking at his three daughters, he felt a pain he never thought he could feel since loosing his wife. 'Akane… she's been through so much… and Kasumi… she gave up her dreams… and Nabiki… kami without her we would've lost our home. How did she do it, how'd she keep us going? How'd they all keep us going?' Standing up, Soün flexed his arm and winced. 'He… he could've killed me… or…' Turning he looked at his long time friend. Flinching from the sight, he realized that he lucked out. 'If Nabiki hadn't stopped him that could've been me I…' that thought stopped him.

"Father…" a voice called from behind him. Tearing his eyes away from his friend, he spared a glance at Ranma and Nabiki, both crying and trembling. He knew why Nabiki was crying, or at least he guessed he knew. Looking past the entryway, he saw Kasumi there looking at him. "Father, are you ok?"

Shakily he nodded his head as he continued to massage his sore shoulder. "I… I'm fine… Saotome needs help." She just nodded at him, but did not make a move to help as Akane was still shivering in her elder sisters' arms. "Is Akane going to be…"

"She will be…" Kasumi replied, but she knew it would be a while.

He just nodded his head, after staring Ranma in the eyes he felt as though he was starring death in the eye. 'How'd he do that?' he wondered, though right now he was wondering what he should do. Stepping towards the two crying teens, he kneeled down and placed his hand on Nabiki's shoulder. "Nabiki…" Trying to compose herself, Nabiki pushed herself up off Ranma as best she could with his arms still holding her in place.

"Daddy?" she asked as she looked at him. 'He's alive… he's ok!' passed though her mind as she snapped out an arm and drew her father to her. This movement though caused Nabiki to loose her balance and she fell back onto Ranma, and pulled her father down with her. "Oh daddy… I'm so glad… you're alive… thank you Ranma…"

"I-I'm sorry N-Nabiki…" Ranma cried as he held her, still trembling and not truly realizing that Soün was also covering him. "I… I didn't mean it… I don't wanna hurt anyone… oh kami please let them be ok…"

Hearing that, Soün was too shocked to reply. 'He… he really wasn't in control… then what happened?' As he stayed there, Soün slipped one arm under Ranma, and the other around his daughter. Slowly shifting his weight, he was able to move them to their sides and then with a little more effort he was able to pull his daughter and Ranma so that they were now resting in his arms. "It… its ok son… everything's gonna be ok…" he said softly. He was not sure what he expected to happen. But when Ranma suddenly latched onto him, he realized that this was the best possibility. What Ranma was saying he was not completely sure, but he was certain that the boy was apologizing.

'What have we done to him?' he wanted to know, and unfortunately, he was able to recall everything that they have done to push his daughter and this boy together. 'Everything we've done… has only hurt them more… please… ancestors… help me.'

Off in the corner, a certain bald martial artist lay in pain and unconscious. He did not know that Nabiki had saved his life, nor did he know that his supposedly manly son was currently crying like a lost child in the arms of his best friend. Instead, all he knew was that whatever his son did to him, it hurt.

Sometime later, Nabiki realized that she was not being held by just one set of arms, but two. Turning her head, she looked into the face of her father. "Daddy?"

"Shh… Everything's going to be ok. Ranma's sleeping." Blinking and looking at the boy in her arms, she was not sure what to say. "He's finally calmed down, Kasumi put Akane to bed and she's taking care of her."

"But…"

"I'll check on her in a few moments. I needed to make sure you two were ok."

"Daddy… thanks." Nabiki told him and gave him a hug. When she felt him loosen his arms she was able to pull not only out of his embrace, but also out of Ranma's as well.

"I need you to call a doctor for Saotome." He told her softly.

She nodded to him and awkwardly made her way towards the phone. Glancing towards Genma, she noticed he was still unconscious, and the cuts and scratches have scabbed over. Wincing she realized that he was going to be in a lot of pain when he woke up. 'The bastard deserves it…' she thought morosely before hurrying out of the room.

With just one person in his arms, Soün was able to move around a little easier. 'Now what?' Soün wondered as he sat there with Ranma asleep in his arms. 'Things are bad… if Ranma hadn't been stopped then he would've killed not only me but Saotome as well.' These thoughts brought a shiver to him. 'We have to stop this… if we keep this up… no, I won't think about it.'

"Daddy…" Nabiki called. When he looked up and continued, "I have someone on the way… what are we going to do?"

Soün shrugged his shoulders as best he could. "I'm not sure. Can you tell me what has happened today? I don't believe you went to school in that?"

"Oh…" Nabiki blushed as she looked over herself. "I got this from Shampoo, its one of hers, thought it's a bit small."

"So I guessed… but what happened between school, and now?"

"Well, I think I should start at the beginning of the day."

He nodded. "Sounds good to me," he said and while holding the sleeping Ranma he listened to what Nabiki had to say about Kunö, Ukyo, Kodachi and the Amazons. Nabiki left nothing out, not even how she ended up taking a bath with Ranma. When she stopped speaking, he let out a tired sigh. "So he really has no control over it?"

His daughter shook her head, "I don't think so. But instead of when he goes 'cat', he can remember everything."

"…no…" whimpered Ranma after Nabiki had mentioned cats.

Nabiki watcher her father pull Ranma tight against him to calm down the troubled martial artist. "I would… if I could that is… ask him to give up the art until he gets control but…"

"But?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"But I know it is useless. From what you said, it's easy to tell that others will not give him a chance just to walk away. And now that the authorities have had to step in things could run badly."

Outside the Tendo dojo, a boy in a black and yellow bandanna came to a stop. Looking around he grinned, "I'm back! I've actually found it!" Opening the gate Ryoga somehow managed to run in the right direction and even run into the very room where Ranma was. "RANMA! Because of you I've seen hell and I…. I…" He suddenly stopped as he saw an unconscious Ranma in Soün's arms. "What the…" he said just before he took in the startled expression of Nabiki's face. However, in his attempt to look back at Ranma, he ended up getting a good look at Nabiki's hip as well as almost all of her leg as the middle Tendo daughter stood up.

"Ryoga, now's not a good time," she told him and placed her hands on her hips which just drew his eyes to her mostly exposed hip and thigh.

"Perhaps you should come back later," Soün tried to say to the boy.

Shaking his head, Ryoga growled out. "I'm not leaving till I've finally killed Ranma and…" Whatever he was going to saw was lost as a loud clang filled the air. Slowly Ryoga sank to his knees before falling on his face.

Behind the lost boy was Kasumi who was looking at one of her pans. "Oh my… Nabiki I seemed to have bent the pan… can we get another?"

to be continued...

I would like to thank everyone for their encouragements.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: This is not a professionally written story, as I am only a hobbyist writer. I'm not an English whiz, and most of the time those that I have pre-reading for me cannot catch every mistake I make. Oh yeah I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" and "Ranma and the Outers." Although I have not had many ideas for them lately, I will not let them die as I have some of my previous Tenchi Muyo stories. I'm just taking a slight break from them to work on some other ideas that won't get outta my head until I write them down.

An apology: I wanted to say I am terribly sorry to everyone for my bad spelling and the punctuation mistakes in the last several chapters have been awful! I hope to soon be able to go though the posted chapters and edit them and eliminate many of the errors.

And now…

Primal Ranma Restless Nights

Nabiki sighed as she lay in her bed trying to go to sleep. However, even though her body was tired, her mind was too active to allow her to rest. 'Damn it, why can't I go to sleep?' she asked herself and rolled over onto her side looking at the clock. Already it was near midnight and everyone was in bed and asleep, but her. Turning over onto her back, she sighed as she thought about the day for what seemed the hundredth time.

'There're just too many changes in too short a time,' she grumbled. After her father had told Kasumi not to worry about the bent pan, it was her job to watch over Ryoga as her father put Ranma to bed. Just thinking about the pig-tailed martial artist brought up a string of conflicting emotions. She wanted to strangle him for scaring them all as well as trying to kill her father. But then again she wanted to kiss him because it seemed that her daddy had finally opened his eyes and was suddenly there for them because of tonight.

And yet having to deal with Ryoga made her want to either pull her hair out or shave Ranma bald. 'Damn martial artists,' she grumbled.

When Ryoga had woken up, he looked around and noticed Nabiki sitting across the table from him and scowling. "Good you're up."

"Um… where's Ranma?"

"Before we talk about him, I want to give you a little free advice."

"Free?" he asked blinking. When Nabiki gave out "free" advice, there was trouble, big trouble!

And it looked like he was the one in trouble this time.

"Yes and the advice is… to stay the hell away from Ranma for a while," Nabiki told him, her tone leaving no argument.

However, Ryoga was never good at reading tones. "Why? He has to pay for what he's… ouch!" he suddenly shouted as Nabiki's hand was introduced to his cheek.

"Listen, and listen good pig for brains," she told him while shaking the pain out of her hand. "You were there when Ranma took off Happosai's arm, right…"

"Yeah…so…"

"Did you also see what he did to Kuno… or Kodachi?"

Shaking his head he stupidly asked, "To Kuno?"

"At school this morning, Ranma pinned Kuno to the wall with his own sword."

"But it's made of wood."

Nabiki sighed and explained what she had seen, how Kuno attacked with a real sword, and then how quickly Ranma nailed the kendoist to the wall. This was followed by an abbreviated meeting under the bridge where Ranma attacked not only Ukyo but also Kodachi when they tried to attack her.

Ryoga was slowly getting it. "He… he did that…"

She nodded at him. "I'm not sure of the extent of what he did to her, but I saw Ranma jump towards Kodachi, then there was some blood flying. When I was able to check him over later, the blood was not his… of that, I'm positive."

"He… he attacked them… and Kuno… he…" Ryoga then grinned. "Serves that jerk right! If I could ever get the chance, I'd do that to him for what he's done to Akane!"

Nabiki hadn't lost her neutral look as she asked, "Oh really?" though a slight smirk seemed to form on her face.

"Yeah."

As he said that, Nabiki just shook her head sadly, as he's had many chances to do just that. Only he's never attacked Kuno, only Ranma. 'Idiot,' passed though her mind as she thought of him.

Later, Nabiki groaned as she looked at the clock. "It took me over two hours to get rid of him," she complained while trying to fall asleep. Yet even Ryoga's visit proved informative. "I guess sis has really been reading all those books," she mumbled wryly. Having seen first hand how much damage and punishment Ryoga could take in a fight, it was rather interesting to her to see Kasumi bring him down with one hit. But earlier this evening the elder daughter explained it.

"Oh my, but no one has ever hit him in that spot before. I read in one of Tofu's books that there is a spot on the back of everyone's head, that if hit hard enough, it will bring unconsciousness."

"Oh…" was all that Nabiki could say in response to that. It sounded simple enough, and it worked flawlessly. However, it was still surprising seeing Kasumi actually hit someone.

Letting out yet another annoyed groan, Nabiki grudgingly sat up in her bed at looked at the clock. "Great … at this rate I'll be awake all night. Why can't I just go to sleep?" With the room dark and the only light coming from the illuminated digits on her alarm clock, Nabiki came to a decision. "Ok Fine, if I'm going to be awake all night, then I might as well get a midnight snack."

Licking her lips, Nabiki threw off her covers, got out of bed and made her way out of her room and down the hall. However she never made it down the stairs. Passing by Ranma's room she thought she heard something, something that sounded like a whimper. "Ranma?" Opening the door slightly she peeked in and then let out a soft gasp.

"No…. no… stay back… no…" Ranma was muttering as he was curled up in what could only be described as a fetal position in the corner of his room, his head moving back and forth as though he was trying to ward off an attack.

"I'm coming in…" she called out and slipped into the room. But Ranma didn't seem to notice.

"Please… daddy… no more…."

"Oh Ranma…" she said softly, her lips quivered as she moved closer. 'What did your father do to you?' she asked mentally and kneeled down beside him. Slowly she reached out her hand and slowly began to stroke his hair.

"Please… help me…" he cried softly.

Sitting down beside him, she continued to run her fingers though his hair, at least until he moved towards her. Quickly he slipped one arm behind her as he rested his head on her lap with his other arm slipping over her legs with his hands clasping together. Looking down at him she swore softly but then smiled as he seemed to relax. "I promise Ranma … I'll do whatever I can to help you."

For some time that night she sat there, leaning against the wall and caressing Ranma's head as he slept, or at least until she fell asleep as well.

As the residents of the Tendo home slept, none of them witnessed the glow that began to encompass Ranma, and then overtake a sleeping Nabiki. Neither did the two awaken while this was happening. The glow, stemming from Ranma, covered them both and stayed that way for most of the night, with the household oblivious to it as were the two it was centered on.

As the Tendo residence slept, a disgruntled fiancée was planning her revenge. "Perfect," Ukyo said as she thought over her plan again. "Simple, effective, and it will get her away from my Ra-chan!" Putting her things up, she imagined life with Ranma, and free of the other fiancées. "Oh Ra-chan… things will be perfect for us! We'll travel a little, in the future that is, once we have some more help and our business will grow and we'll have restaurants all over Japan… no the world!" Having cried for most of the day intermixed with bouts of anger the likes of which Akane had never shown had made Ukyo a little more than confused in her ideals. This was also not helped by the fact that she's had no food and only sake since this morning.

Outside her door, Konatsu was worried. "Ukyo-sama… what are you going to do?" he asked the door sadly knowing that she wouldn't hear him. But however much he was worried, he knew there was nothing he could do, and that was making him even more nervous. Looking at her door as he passed it yet again, he made a vow to himself. "Whatever she does… I will help her… even if… even if it means my life…"

Yet even with Ukyo's desperate plans, Konatsu made his vow and would stand by it, he just hoped his new promise wouldn't come true.

While he was hoping to avoid death, a certain overweight martial artist was almost wishing for it to come quickly. 'Oh my head… my stomach… my arms… ouch… everything… hurts…' Genma thought as she tried to get comfortable. Unfortunately because of his training he was very resistant to the soothing effects of the drugs used to ease his pain. And the doctor at the clinic refused to give him any sake. All this meant for the injured martial artist was that he was going to have to spend a night feeling as if his skin was being burned off from the hundreds of small scratches over his body while he was covered only by a thin sheet on one of the clinic's beds.

But it also made him think of something… 'Ranma… he… he tried to kill me… he wanted to do this to me,' he thought as he recalled how Ranma had said that he'd end his fathers life. 'What's happened to you my son?' he asked and conveniently forgot all the things he had put Ranma through for the art. "At least Nodoka wasn't here to see this…" he mumbled and looked at his hand. He could see it, move it, yet he couldn't feel anything though it. 'Its like its… dead…' Genma thought and tried to pick up the sheet that covered him, and found that he could not tell he was holding it, even though he could see his finger gripping it tightly. Sadly it was as the doctor's said; his nerves were, for lack of a better word, dead.

"I'll never feel anything again…" he mumbled and looked at his hand; or more aptly, the burn and the cut on his hand. When he had awoken earlier he had been in a cold sweat and screaming for Ranma to stop. It was only after he found out where he was that he relaxed. Or at least he tried to but he was being treated for two-hundred thirty three minor scratches, forty seven major ones that required stitches and a hand that had been completely frozen. When he had tried to pick up a cup of tea, he couldn't tell how hard he was squeezing it until the cup shattered driving several shards into his hand while burning his hand badly. Yet, all he did was look at it and wonder why he felt nothing.

"What are we going to do about that boy?" he asked the room, and received nothing in reply, though he was not expecting a reply either.

Even though Genma was hoping to get some feeling back, there was one, who was hoping to get rid of a feeling, one that was terrifying.

Nodoka Saotome, matriarch of the Saotome clan was hurrying home as fast as she could. Just three days ago she had to leave Nerima to go to see about a supposed relative needing help. Unfortunately it turned out to be someone trying to get back at them, because it was another of those poor souls Genma had scammed in his previous travels.

However for the past two days she has felt an overwhelming darkness threatening to consume her. Only one time before in her life had she felt this darkness, 'but that was just a year after Genma left with Ranma…' she thought to herself almost in a panic. 'I was so worried, and the nightmares...' shivering she tried to think of other things, but the only peace of mind was that after having that lingering darkness haunting her dreams for two weeks, they finally went away. It was shortly after then that she received a postcard from her husband saying that they were both fine.

"Please… ancestors… let my son be all right…" she pleaded silently as she rode the train back to Nerima. As it was, it was going to take her several more hours to get back, which meant she would be returning sometime in the early morning hours.

To be continued.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: This is not a professionally written story, as I am only a hobbyist writer. I'm not an English whiz, and most of the time those that I have pre-reading for me cannot catch every mistake I make. Oh yeah I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" and "Ranma and the Outers." Although I have not had many ideas for them lately, I will not let them die as I have some of my previous Tenchi Muyo stories. I'm just taking a slight break from them to work on some other ideas that won't get outta my head until I write them down.

An apology: I wanted to say I am terribly sorry to everyone for my bad spelling and the punctuation mistakes in the last several chapters have been awful! I hope that soon I'll be able to go though the posted chapters, edit them, and eliminate many of the errors.

And now…

Primal Ranma Awkward Morning

Trees… so many trees. They seemed to pass quickly as she ran though them at a breakneck speed she never thought possible. Sometimes she would weave to the right, others to the left to avoid running into one. Occasionally she would even have to duck under a low branch or leap over those that threatened to hit her knees. But she didn't care, and none of this changed the pace that she set for herself. Yet she was not running from anyone, nor was she trying to get anywhere in particular. Instead, she ran just for the thrill of it.

From behind her, she could hear the sounds of pursuit, but she was not worried, as it was just him making sure that she stayed safe. 'As if there's a threat here…' she told herself and continued to run knowing that he was nearby and he was making sure she was safe.

Though she thought it funny that he ran behind her, instead of in front of her, but then she realized as she leapt over several bushes that she was the one setting the pace, not him. With a feral smile on her face, she continued to run just enjoying the feel of the wind rushing past her as she dodged in and out of the trees. With one last push, she jumped up from the ground onto a low branch before propelling herself upwards towards another large branch before finally breaking out of the trees altogether and for a brief moment, she felt like she was flying.

All too soon, that ended as she landed in the calm waters of a spring. She could hear the startled yelp from him as he too came in for a splashdown in the cold spring. Pulling herself out of the cool water, she tried not to laugh too hard at him. Turning around she looked at her reflection in the water, let out a startled yelp, and jumped backwards.

Panting, Nabiki looked around the room. "What… where?" She asked as she tried to control her racing heartbeat. "That… that…"

"That hurt…" she suddenly heard and looked down to see that she was holding Ranma's face against her stomach and his body was at several odd angles.

"Ranma?" She asked unsteadily then let out another startled yelp as she realized that they had just spent the night together. "Ah! Ranma what are you doing here!"

"Ouch…" Ranma said after he was suddenly thrown away from Nabiki when she shouted at him. "But… this is my room…"

"Your room?" She asked unsteadily and much to slow for her liking she realized that she was indeed in his room… after having spent the night with him.

"Well… I guess it's my room. Well an pop's room too."

"Oh I see… um…" Once again, Nabiki found herself to be in an odd situation with Ranma.

"What are you doing in here? If Akane sees ya she's gonna kill me!"

Nabiki let out a tired sigh. "Ranma, after what's happened around here lately, I think that's the least of your worries."

"What…" He started to ask then sighed as he recalled everything in absolutely too much clarity that he would like. He could still remember cutting off Happosai's arm, attacking Akane, trying to kill his pops, as well as attacking Kodachi and Ukyo. "Oh man…"

With her mind and thoughts under control again, Nabiki straightened out her pajamas and then tried to run her fingers though her hair. 'Tried' being the operative word as her hair was now a tangled mess. "I was going to get a snack last night and I heard noises."

"Noises?" Ranma asked and felt sheepish in that he didn't hear anything.

"Correct, and when I found them, they were coming from you."

"From me?"

"It looked like you were having a nightmare." She couldn't help but smirk at his blushing expression. "Ranma… it was about the neko-ken… wasn't it?"

His head snapped up allowing his eyes to meet hers, before his head suddenly drooped and the once proud Ranma Saotome looked once again like a defeated mess. "…yes…"

Without even thinking about it, Nabiki went from kneeling, to walking towards him, that is if one considers crawling on their hands and knees walking. Stopping just before him, she sat up and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Ranma. I… I know things haven't really been the best between up before. But… but I'd like to help."

Slowly Ranma lifted his face up to look at her, though she gasped at the sight of tears in his eyes. "Nabiki… I… I…"

"What is it?"

"I can remember all of it… why? Every time I went c-cat before I never remembered anythin'! But now I remember it all! What's goin' on? What's happened to me?"

Just as she did yesterday, Nabiki pulled Ranma to her and held him closely as tears fell from his eyes soaking her shoulder. She had no clues, no reason for any of his actions, yet she knew that had she been in his place, she would have gone crazy a long time before now. "I don't know Ranma…" she told him softly and let him use her shoulder.

The quiet moment was interrupted as an aged voice called from outside Ranma's window. "Ranma my boy? You awake?"

"Happosai…" Ranma said with close to a growl, causing shivers to run down Nabiki's spine, and not in a way that she appreciated.

"Ranma, I need to speak with you," the lecherous master of Anything Goes said from outside.

Firmly, Ranma pushed Nabiki aside and positioned himself between her and the window before opening it. "What do ya want?"

"Ah, Ranma, I need to talk to you… eh? I see," he said and massaged his chin with his good arm as he took in the sight of the two before him.

"Old man… what do you want?" Ranma asked this time with a rough growl to his voice. However, before he could say another word, much less act on the building anger he felt inside him, he felt a touch, a light, gentle touch on his shoulder. Looking at his shoulder, he noticed Nabiki's hand there, and turning his head to see her concerned look he quickly pushed his anger back to the back of his mind.

Seeing this, the aged master just nodded his head. "Ranma, as you know Shampoo is no longer chasing you, but you may not understand the reasons."

Turning his attention away from Nabiki was harder than Ranma expected, but he tried to hide it. "W-what do ya mean?"

"Simply put, when you lashed out at me, your Neko-ken training took over, but only in your aura, not your mind." This got both teens full attention, so neither noticed how close Nabiki moved to Ranma to hear what Happosai had to say. "You see my boy, when the neko-ken took over in times past, it changed your mind and aura, this time just your aura, and it caused several problems."

"Ah… yea… sorry about your arm…" Ranma mumbled and scratched the back of his head. Though again, neither teen noticed when Ranma brought his hand down from behind his head, he slipped that arm around Nabiki where his hand finally came to rest on her hip.

"Ah, don't worry about me! I was more worried about the others. Since this was the first time this happened, when Shampoo touched you, her aura was infected by yours."

"Infected?" Nabiki asked curiously, and unconsciously placed her hand on top of the hand that rested on her side.

"Yes, and since it infected her, she's had several horrible nightmares."

"Ah… I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"

"I know, so with Mousse's help, we have cleansed her aura. However…"

"However?" Nabiki asked, knowing that there was a catch. There always was.

"However, before she even realized what she was doing, she was cleansing her own aura."

Ranma just blinked at that. "But that's good... right?"

"Had she been by herself then yes. But she used Mousse's aura to clean her own, so even if she were to marry another, then she would always have a connection to him."

This caused Nabiki to smirk, and unknown to her, she leaned her head against Ranma. "So she'll no longer be after Ranma, because she now has a thing for Mousse."

"Quite right!" Happosai cackled, at both what they were talking about, and how close the two were and he knew that they didn't realize it yet. 'Oh this will be so much fun to watch!'

"Well Ranma, looks like you have one less fiancée as well as one less rival," Nabiki told him and smiled.

"Yea… I guess yer right… um… hay wait a second. If Shampoo's aura was poisoned, then what about Akane?"

Taking a slow breath, the old man sighed. "I believe she's been poisoned too, and even if her aura is cleaned, she undoubtedly will not be willing to spend any time near you."

"Oh…" Ranma felt like his world was falling apart faster, yet even as his head dropped, he could feel Nabiki's reassuring presence beside him. Though for the life of him, he couldn't ever recall a time before this all happened that he'd call her presence reassuring. Yet just a short time ago, she'd said that she wanted to help him, and that made him feel better.

Suddenly Happosai spoke up, "Now then, Ranma I want you to take this."

"Huh?" he asked as a box was pressed into his free hand. And to see what it was, the boy had to release Nabiki from this grip. But that in itself caused him to start sweating. "I… um…oh… I…" he stammered as he realized his right hand was resting on Nabiki's hip... and with each syllable he stammered, his hand would give her a slight squeeze.

Broken out of her musings not only By Happosai's actions but also by feeling Ranma's strong grip on her side, Nabiki began to blush and wonder what she should do. Coming to a decision, she pulled Ranma's hand off her hip and placed it on the box he'd been given.

"Oh Nabiki dear?" Happosai said sweetly gaining her attention. When he had it, he smirked at her. "If he's going to open the box, you need to release his hand."

"EEP!" Nabiki nearly shouted as she quickly released Ranma's hand. Staggering backwards while looking bewildered, she tried to comprehend just how the two of them had not only been holding each other; but now that she had moved away from him, why did she feel… alone.

"My boy, in there you will find a map to a place I once called home. I think the two of you need to get away from here for a while and I can't think of a better place!" Cackling madly, the aged martial artist bounded away from the Tendo home as though he were a few hundred years younger than he was.

Slowly Ranma opened the box and then just stared at its contents.

"R-Ranma…" Nabiki stuttered then cursed her own nervousness. "What's in the box?"

"Um… a… m-map… a k-key… and… and some m-money…"

"That doesn't sound too bad," the girl said as she regained control over herself again. Or at least until the box fell from Ranma hands spilling the rest of the contents on the floor causing her eyes to go wide in seeing all the packages of condoms.

Ukyo awoke groaning and bearing a horrible headache. But when she herd a voice tell her to 'lay still' she suddenly tensed up. "Who's there?"

"You should lay still Ukyo-sama," she heard Konatsu say gently from beside her.

She tried to sit up, but upon moving she only said two words, "Why… ohh…" before she fell back on the bed.

"Please… you've had too much to drink yesterday." He said and placed a wet rag over her forehead and eyes.

"Why… oh my head…"

"I'm sorry, you were very upset yesterday and didn't eat much, and drank several bottles of sake."

'That would explain the hammers pounding in my head,' she thought miserably. Reaching out for him, she was relieved to feel the fabric of his Kimono, and she knew that at least nothing happened last night. "Konatsu…. Why are you here?"

"I was worried about you. When you suddenly passed out yesterday, I put you to bed and…"

"That's… thanks fine…" She told him feeling much more relieved.

"Will you be ok?"

She could only sigh at that before she nodded her head… making the hammers start another round of pounding. "Yea… I… oh… I'll be ok."

"Ok, um… Ukyo-sama…"

"Yes?" She asked and hoped the noise in her head would go away.

"Did you…um… have any nightmares last night?"

"I don't even remember going to sleep… much less dreaming." She told him the wondered why she heard his relieved sigh. "Why?"

"Happosai stopped by here yesterday; he said that when Shampoo was near Ranma, his aura somehow infected her. This was causing her some horrible nightmares."

Ukyo wanted to say 'great' or 'serves her right,' but there was something in his voice that worried her. "Really?"

"Yes and because of that, apparently Cologne and Shampoo have given up on Ranma."

"WHAT! NO WAY!" She shouted and sat up… and then nearly fell out of her bed from dizziness.

"Oh! Please Ukyo-sama! You must stay in bed!"

"Ah… ok…" she replied weakly.

"Anyway, since her aura was infected, Happosai and Cologne had to clean it… or something like that. They wanted to know if you've had any nightmares as well."

"I bet they did," muttered the chef before letting out a tired sigh. "At least they've given up and are going home."

"But they can't."

"Can't what?"

"Go home." He told her seriously. "In order to give up on Ranma, both Cologne and Shampoo have become exiles. They… they can't ever return to their home."

"Oh…" She said softly and thought about this for a while.

For the first time in her life, Akane found that she had nothing to say. Or at least nothing to say at the moment. Across from here was Cologne, the former matriarch of the Joketsuzoku. To her right was the former Amazon Champion, Shampoo, and beside her and looking rather out of it, sat Mousse.

"I take it you are surprised child?" Cologne asked in amusement to which the girl only nodded. "As I told you earlier, I, well we no longer have any claim on Ranma and as such, we wanted to help you."

"I… well… this is all very nice and all," Akane could not help but stammer her response. Just a short time ago, before the sun had even risen; she had been awoken by Cologne who asked if she would meet her in the park in a few minutes. Akane had only thought about it for a short time before realizing that not going would mean having to see Ranma at breakfast, and going could mean a fight… but that was preferable over seeing him, especially after last night. She never thought she'd ever get the cold chills out of her body after that. 'And so here I am…' she thought ruefully though mentally she was a bit happier.

"I understand your hesitation, and had the situation been different then we would not be making this offer. However, since finding out that Ranma had poisoned Shampoo's aura, as well as Happosai's, we believed that you or one of your sisters might have been poisoned as well."

"Am I?" Akane asked weaker than she wanted.

"Just slightly, it seems that by the time you came in contact with him, he had somehow managed to control it some."

"I see…" she responded and looked at Shampoo. It made sense to her now that she thought about it, 'So that's why Shampoo seemed scared of him.' However, it all seemed too easy. Shampoo was poisoned, and in order to clean her aura she was helped by Mousse, which wasn't surprising. Having Happosai help, that was a bit too unbelievable. And now, here they were offering to help her.

"Akane…" Shampoo said softly which further surprised the youngest Tendo.

"Yes?"

"What great-grandmother say is true… Ai… Ranma… he scare Shampoo… and make Shampoo have bad dreams. Now, when think about Ranma… make Shampoo remember bad dreams."

"According to Happosai and Cologne," Mousse put in as he suddenly joined the conversation. "Her aura is clean, but the memories are still there. It'll take some time, but we're going to be fine."

For a moment, Akane looked between Mousse and Shampoo and sighed. "Fine… let's do this."

"As you wish." Cologne said and then began instructing Akane, just as she had Shampoo

Nodoka Saotome was in a rush to get to her son. After the numerous times recently that she's had that awful gnawing and empty feeling in her gut, she just knew that something terrible had happened to her son. So it was little surprise that when she arrived at the Tendo Dojo, she did not even announce herself, and hastily left her sandals behind before racing up the stairs to her son's room.

"Oh my…" Kasumi muttered as she saw the Saotome matriarch rush through the house. Moving over to the stairs she wondered what was going on when she heard Mrs. Saotome open her son's door.

"Ranma I…"

And then there was silence.

Kasumi wondered what could have happened not only to cause Ranma's mother to rush in like that, but also to stop so suddenly. And then the silence was broken by a thunderous cry of joy.

"YAY! MY SON IS SO MANLY!"

Whish was followed by an equally loud, "MOM!"

Kasumi just stood at the bottom of the steps blinking in confusion as she overheard the rather loud proclamations.

"Oh my son! I'm so proud of you… But is this right? I mean she is your fiancée's sister and all… but…"

"Oh my…" Kasumi said softly and quickly returned to the kitchen.

Upstairs, in Ranma's room, two teens are blushing furiously as his mother is dancing about waving around little victory flags. Just several minutes earlier the two had started frantically cleaning up the spilled condoms least anyone see them. So when it came to the last one, they had both reached for it and stopped. For several long moments, Nabiki held Ranma's trembling hand as he held the condom packet, and the two just looked at each other, trying to guess what the other was thinking. And then that moment was broken as the door was pushed open and suddenly the two were not only holding the little packet, but holding it up so that his mother could see it as well.

"MOM! It's… its not what you're thinking!"

"It's not?" She suddenly asked saddened.

"No! I mean I like Nabiki an all… but... I mean…"

"So you do want to do it with her! Oh I'm so proud!"

"What? No!"

"You mean you don't?"

"That's right!"

"Saotome…" Nabiki said flatly even though her body was developing a slight tremble. Though for the life of her, she couldn't understand why him saying he didn't want her, was causing her pain.

"What?" He asked exasperated, then noticed the slight trembling to her shoulders. 'Oh no…' he thought and quickly tried to think of something, anything to do.

"Son… you mean… you mean you don't want to be with Nabiki?"

"What?" he nearly shouted with his eyes opening wide. "You've got to be kidding me?" Even as he said it, Nabiki closed her eyes and flinched back away from him. "Look mom, she deserves a lot better than me, I mean what've I got to give her? She likes ta have things and needs someone that she can really talk to ya, know, about things that she likes… and I… I just…"

"Ranma…" A soft voice said from beside him gaining his attention, though he was surprised that the voice came from Nabiki. "Is that…is that what you really think?"

"Yea… I mean what could ya see in me?"

Nabiki couldn't help but smile. Moving closer to him, her smile widened. "You'd be surprised," she told him and placed a kiss on his cheek. Then leaving a stunned boy behind, she left the room quickly.

"I… I… uh… I… oh…."

After leaving the room, Nabiki could only think of one thing, 'What the hell did I do that for?'

To be Continued…


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: This is not a professionally written story, as I am only a hobbyist writer. I'm not an English whiz, and most of the time those that I have pre-reading for me cannot catch every mistake I make. Oh yeah I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" and "Ranma and the Outers." Although I have not had many ideas for them lately, I will not let them die as I have some of my previous Tenchi Muyo stories. I'm just taking a slight break from them to work on some other ideas that won't get outta my head until I write them down.

An apology: I wanted to say I am terribly sorry to everyone for my bad spelling and the punctuation mistakes in the last several chapters have been awful! I hope that soon I'll be able to go though the posted chapters, edit them, and eliminate many of the errors. Though it seems no one notices the continuity error, so um… here is the correction.

And now…

Primal Ranma Licked but not Whipped

It took quite a bit of time, but over breakfast Nabiki was able to explain not only to Nodoka but also to her father and sister exactly why she was in Ranma's room and what had really happened. Nothing. This explination much to the disappointment of the Saotome Matriarch. Yet Nabiki and Ranma were not the only topic of discussion as Kasumi had found a note in Akane's room saying that she was going to be with Shampoo and Cologne today.

"So you think she'll be fine?" Soun asked worriedly, though thankfully to those around he did not look near tears.

"I know she'll be fine," Nabiki replied. "She wrote the note herself so she was not kidnapped, nor were there any signs of a fight in the room. She left, simply because she wanted to."

"But why?" Ranma asked with his head bowed. He just didn't see why Akane would leave, and not tell anyone.

"We'll just have to ask her when she gets back." Nabiki told them all with a shrug, although she was a little glad of this diversion as it kept them from asking about the box Happosai gave Ranma and the fact that she and Ranma had been seen this morning holding one of the items therein. 'I swear if I ever see that little pervert again…'

"By the way," Nodoka asked, "where is my husband?"

'Oh boy…' Nabiki thought and then wondered how to tell her that her son had tried to kill him last night and that he was recuperating at the hospital.

"Oh my, well there was a bit of an accident last night, and Uncle Saotome took the brunt of it," Kasumi said brightly causing Nabiki and Ranma to both groan, though they didn't notice they did it at the same time.

"An accident? What happened?"

Before anyone could answer, Soun suddenly spoke up. "Um, Mrs. Saotome, may I have a word with you?"

"Certainly," She replied and followed him as he walked out to the dojo, the others inside could only stare at their retreating backs in wonder.

"What happened to him?" Ranma asked suddenly.

"But Ranma, you were the one to bring daddy back to us," Kasumi said in a cheerful manner that left him gaping at her.

Seeing his look, Nabiki almost laughed, had it not been for what it took to bring her father back. "She's right Ranma, despite what happened last night; somehow, daddy has suddenly come back to himself."

"Um I… I… I don't; know if I should say I'm sorry or not…" He finally told them as he came out of his stupor.

Both Nabiki and Kasumi thought about that for a moment but a knock at the door interrupted them. "Oh my, I better go see who that is," the eldest daughter said and left the other two teens alone for a moment.

"I wonder who that is?" he mused causing her to give him a smirk.

"Not sure, but it's rather unusual for people to knock around here."

"Um... yea…"

"Hi Ran-chan…" A voice timidly said from the door alerting them who it was.

For a moment, Ranma's anger surfaced in remembrance of yesterday, but he quickly squashed it. "Hi U-chan," he replied then blinked at Ukyo. For once, the chef was without her battle spatula.

Moving over closer to him, Ukyo steeled her courage. "Ah, about yesterday… I… I'm sorry I… I just wasn't thinking right."

A slight tinge of anger bloomed in the back of his mind as he wondered, 'why not apologize ta Nabiki? She was the one I was protectin'.'

"So… um… to make up for it, I… I made you this…" she said and handed him one of her deluxe specials.

"U-chan…" he was going to say more but the rumble of a stomach could be heard. "Um… I…"

"Oh my, Nabiki are you hungry?" Kasumi suddenly said diverting the pig-tailed boy's attention towards the named girl, whom he noticed was blushing a bright red and trying to hide her stomach with her arms.

"Nabiki?" he asked and was answered by yet another growl of her stomach, which caused him to smirk, as he wasn't the culprit this time. "Here, take this, ya sound hungry." So saying, Ranma handed the okonomiyaki over to Nabiki who only blinked at him.

'Why is my stomach growling like this, and did Ranma just pass up food?' However, just before the stunned girl could take a bite, Ukyo grabbed on to it.

"Hey! I made that special for Ran-chan!" Ukyo decided then and there, that a day of drinking sake to the point that she was sick, then trying to spend a morning cooking was not the brightest thing she's ever done. In fact, that rated right up there with what was happening before her astonished eyes, as she had just seen Ranma give away food. Food that she had just tried to take back forcefully, but when she had grabbed the okonomiyaki, she had expected at least some resistance; unfortunately, Nabiki was stunned as well.

A brief moment, that was all it took for Ranma to hand it over to Nabiki, before it was ripped out of her hands by Ukyo and with no resistance, the chef stumbled backwards and fell onto her backside, staring at Ranma's face, where the okonomiyaki had ended up.

"Ah! Ran-chan! I'm sorry!" The chef shouted from her spot on the floor.

For his part, Ranma just pulled it away from his face, showing all those in the room, that yes, his face was covered in sauce. For a brief moment, he scowled at the three girls as all three of them, even though Ukyo had apologized, were beginning to laugh.

"Oh, don't be that way Ranma," Nabiki said and stepped up to him. Lifting her finger up to his face, she ran her finger down his cheek coating her finger in sauce before sensually licking her finger. "Mmmm tastes good…" she told him, then without realizing what she was doing, and before the astonished eyes of her older sister, and Ukyo, Nabiki moved in closer to Ranma. Practically pressing her body against his, she began licking more of the sauce off his face. Not just once or twice… but several times.

"Oh my…" Kasumi said softly as she stared at her sister licking Ranma's face, though she did have to admit that Ranma did look rather comical the way his pigtail was sticking straight out from the back of his head and his eyes must have been twice their normal size.

"What the hell is this?" Ukyo shouted and stood up angrily. Several times, she tried to reach behind her to grab her battle spatula only to curse herself for leaving it behind.

When Nabiki heard the shout, it shocked her enough to open her eyes and realize that she had cleaned practically half of Ranma's face… with her tongue. "What the…!"

Unfortunately… in Ranma's state, the shout only caused him to blink and look at Nabiki curiously. Then with a wry smile, he leaned closer to her. "You got some on you now…" as he spoke, she was a bit stunned because she could have sworn she heard him purr.

However, before she could say a word, he moved closer, and began to lick her chin causing her body to shudder at the sudden feeling. 'Ah kami… what…. What's happening?' Unfortunately, when she tried to open her mouth to say something, Ranma had chosen that moment to lick the sauce off her lips. This was unfortunate in that this caused both of their mouths to be open at the same time, and suddenly his lips were pressed against hers and their tongues were suddenly trying their level best to out lick the other.

"Oh my…" Kasumi said blushing brightly, though no one heard her.

Without Nabiki even realizing it, her arms had slipped around his neck, as had his arms slipped around her body so that they could hold each other closer.

"Son I think…." Nodoka said as she entered the room with Soun and then both parents just stared at Nabiki and Ranma… standing in the middle of the room, kissing and holding each other closely. "YEEESS!" She shouted and began dancing around waving little victory flags, though she realized that dancing by herself was not enough, so she easily convinced a stunned Soun and Kasumi to dance with her waving around little flags.

Ukyo just sat on the floor, stunned beyond the ability to move as she first watched Nabiki lick Ranma's face… and then he suddenly returned the favor and now they were kissing! "YOU JACK ASS!" She shouted loud enough to cause the house to shake.

This was enough to bring the two that were still kissing out to their state of mind and realize that yes, they were holding each other and yes, they were kissing… and yes… that was the others tongue that they felt in their mouths. With an audible pop, the two released each other lips and for a moment, they just stared at each other with wide eyes as they tried to comprehend what they had just done.

Also, this was enough to bring Kasumi out of her surprised state, only to find that she had been dancing around waving some strange little flags. "How curious…"

"Ah…" Both Ranma and Nabiki tried to say as they continued to wonder how they had come to be so close… and why was it so hard to let go?

"Ran-ma!" Ukyo shouted as she stood up menacingly.

Looking over at Ukyo and realizing it was her that he was seeing, was enough to cause the pigtailed martial artist to at least let go of Nabiki with one arm, turn towards his 'cute-fiancée,' and stutter out his response. "U-Ukyo! It's… it's not w-what it looks like!"

Said chef was flexing her fingers and wishing she had her battle spatula right now. "You…. You… you expect ME to believe that! I came over here, to apologize to you and you throw this in my face!"

"Technically you threw it in his face," Nabiki said softly so that only Ranma heard her, or so she thought.

"AAARRRGGGHHHH!" Ukyo shouted and made a grab for her mini-spatulas… only to remember that she had left them behind as well.

However, in her attempt to grab her spatulas, Ranma moved, placing himself between the chef and Nabiki with his back was hunched over. In this position, he brought up one hand and began to growl menacingly at his one time friend.

Hearing that growl, it brought everyone out of their contemplations as well as out of their ranting. Snapping her eyes back to Ranma, Ukyo let out a startled gasp. "Ranma…"

All she received as an answer was another low growl, though she did notice that the table and several other things in the room began to shake because of the growl.

"But… Ranma… I… I came to apologize!"

"Miss Kuonji," A voice called to her. Turning to look at the speaker, she realized it was his mother. "From what I understand it was you that attacked Mss Tendo and my son protected her. So it is not my son's forgiveness that you seek."

"But…"

"Now, I ask that you leave, as your presence is upsetting my son and the last few times he has become this upset, terrible things have taken place."

This caused her to gulp loudly as she recalled how Ranma had attacked her, and reduced her battle spatula, to mere metal confetti in a blink of an eye.

"Now please, I do not wish to see my son harm anyone else."

"I…" She said then looked back at the way Ranma was protecting Nabiki and she held back a growl of her own. Not that she didn't think that it would help, but she knew it would send him the wrong message. Turning her back on them she walked to the doorway then paused to look over her shoulder. "This isn't over Nabiki!"

The named girl just blinked and looked between Ranma and Ukyo a few times before nodding her head. 'This is… just… as Shampoo says, too too weird.'

Once Ukyo had left, the tension in the room was still high, as Ranma had not calmed down yet. However, when Nabiki placed her hand on his shoulder, he seemed to suddenly slump over. "Ranma?" Receiving no verbal reply, Nabiki looked over the young man and her critical eyes caught the barely noticeable shake of his shoulders. "Ranma…" she said softly and turned him towards her with surprising ease.

This time she got a response, but it was in the form on him throwing his arms around her and of all things, crying into her shoulder. When she felt his legs give out from under him, she quickly, though without realizing it, pulled him closer and just let him cry on her shoulder. 'Kami this is so messed up, what the hell is going on and why the hell were we kissing?' she asked herself as she comforted the martial artist.

Watching this, Nodoka was about to make a comment about it not being manly to cry like that but she was stopped by Soun. "This is what I was talking about. Sometimes he will suddenly slip into… that… and when he comes out, his emotions are… well…"

"A jumbled mess?" She hazarded to which he nodded.

"Yes, and from what Nabiki has told me, as well as what I've seen myself, he has viciously attacked several that he calls his friends, and afterwards… he…"

"I see… and he feels guilty over hurting them."

"It's ok Ranma… she's gone… nothing happened," Nabiki said trying to clam Ranma.

Motioning for Kasumi and Nodoka to follow him, Soun directed the two of them into the kitchen. Once there, he let out a tired sigh and addressed them both. "I… I don't know what is going on. In the past two days I have seen Ranma go from one extreme to the other, and I don't mind saying that I was terribly surprised to see him kissing Nabiki."

Kasumi didn't answer as she kept recalling how deeply she had seen them kiss… she had even briefly seen their tongues! Just thinking about it made her blush and feel like she was intruding on a private moment between them.

"So what should we do?" Nodoka asked. She really wanted grandkids, and seeing how her son had been kissing the girl, she just knew it would not take much and the before long, she would have grandbabies!

"I don't know, but Ranma is having trouble adjusting and he needs… he needs time away from here."

"What… but… but I just got my son back!"

"And I've just come back myself…" he added ruefully though it did bring a smile to his oldest daughters face. "But, what if this keeps up? I don't think that he will be given the time alone here that he needs to gain control of himself again."

"Oh dear…" Ranma's mother said in alarm. "If what you told me about the Kuno boy is right, then something dreadful may happen!"

"Correct, so we need to think of something, and do it quickly." He told them seriously.

"I'm home…." A voice shouted then stopped suddenly.

"Oh, Akane's back," Kasumi said and left the kitchen to see Akane staring at Ranma, who was clinging to Nabiki. At their feet was a discarded okonomiyaki, though his face and Nabiki's clothes seemed to have the sauce in some interesting places. Yet instead of screaming about him being a pervert, she just stood there, staring at them, as Ranma was just now pulling himself together so she could easily see the tears on his cheeks.

However, that did not stop Nabiki from gaping as her little sister. "Ah… Akane… it's… it's not what you're thinking!"

Quickly wiping away his tears and removing himself from Nabiki's embrace, Ranma tried to stutter out the same thing, though his incoherent babbling didn't make sense to anyone. Shaking her head quickly, Akane muttered something about perverts, before rushing by them and up the stairs to her room.

Once safely in her room, Akane sat on her bed and leaned her back against the wall. "Now what?" She mumbled to herself. Closing her eyes, she could still see Ranma holding her sister. 'It's not fair…' she complained mentally. 'After all we've been through, and he's never held me like that… and… and in less than two days, she… she… she's gotten further with him than I have.'

Tears slowly began making their way down her cheeks as she thought of her loss, but what made it worse, was that every time she pictured Ranma holding her like he was holding Nabiki, it scared her. 'Baka…' she muttered to herself. 'Why am I so scared… I mean… he wouldn't ever hurt me… not really… but…' Slowly she rubbed her stomach where he had kicked her the other day. 'Why'd this have to happen? Why now? What… what am I going to do now?'

Frustrated, she began to think back over the time that she had known Ranma. Everything from how she had first met him, to when he had said he would kill to protect her… to the time he actually did kill. 'I should've told him sooner… I… I should've told him I… I…love…' Finally breaking down, the girl sank down on her bed, clutching her pillow tightly and let her tears come unbridled.

Downstairs, Ranma had watched as Akane ran up the stairs and he felt a part of his heart aching to help her, but… there was something else. Something else was holding him back and helped make up for some of the pain, yet even then, it was only enough to keep him from totally breaking under the strain.

Beside him, Nabiki stood and wondered what to do. At first, she had been worried that Ranma would leave her to check on Akane. 'But that's what's supposed to happen, he's not supposed to stay here… with me… he's supposed to go running after her. He always does.'

"Oh my…" It hurt to see her youngest sister crying, but Kasumi wasn't sure what she could do, or say in this instance. "I think I'll…"

"Stay here." Her father said simply.

"But Akane…"

"She… she will be fine in time…" he said though added, "I hope" under his breath. "I will check on her in just a moment. You have acted as her mother for too long. Its time… It's time I acted like her father."

"Daddy…"

The teens still in the room just looked at him in amazement for a long moment. It was then that his daughters quickly hugged him saying how glad they were that he was back, though it made Ranma feel a bit self conscious as he watched this. Yet what made him even more confused was why he felt… jealous… that Nabiki was hugging her father.

In a hospital bed not too far from the Tendo home, Genma Saotome sat and looked at his hand. 'Damn that boy… what was he thinking? How am I going to be able to eat, much less fight like this?' Grumbling to himself, the portly martial artist was looking over his bandaged hand, and wishing for some feeling, even if it was a little itch right now.

Leaning his head back against the pillows behind him he had at least some consolation in that they at lest tried to keep him comfortable, even though the food was bad and in such small portions that it was barely a snack. 'I've got to get out of here,' he muttered to himself.

"Ah Mr. Saotome," A voice said from the doorway causing the man to look towards the door. "How are you feeling today? I'm Dr Naginata, and I'm here to help you."

Genma blinked at not only his name, but also that phrase and could not help but be worried. However, the doctor appeared to be a tall skinny man with a pair of glasses hanging by a chain around his neck. The doctors' hair was thinning, but combed over the top of his mostly baldhead and that infuriating smile on his face made the martial artist want to slap it off his face.

"We still don't know what happened to you Mr. Saotome, but you appear to have not only been attacked by some wild animal, but you also some how flash froze your hand."

This caused him to grumble. "I did not do this to myself!"

"Then how else do you explain how this happened? Surely, a martial artist of your caliber should have been able to take care of himself, and known not to freeze your hand."

"Ah… quite right! I knew I shouldn't do it…" he stated proudly as he tried to think up an excuse that made him look good.

"So why did you then?"

"But I told you I didn't!"

"Then how'd it happen?"

"Uh… well you see…"

"Oh and it seems you are due for your physical, I need to run a complete examination on you…" As he said this, the doctor pulled out a latex glove and started slipping it on his hand. Behind the doctor, two large female nurses stepped into the room that made Genma whimper.

"Oh... that's not necessary…. Really…" he said and tried to get away, only to find that the two nurses were able to grab onto him, which caused him to scream out in pain, just before a gag was placed in his mouth.

"Really Mr. Saotome, you are acting like a child, calm down as this will be over."

"BUFFT IMMFFF NFFFT AFF…"

"Please, you are acting worse than a six year old, be a man and lets get this examination over with."

While Genma had never had a high opinion of the medical profession, he had more reason than ever to distrust them now. Yet with all his bellyaching and complaining, he was still receiving much better treatment than another Nerima resident that was known simply as the Blue Blunder.

"Let go of my royal personage!"

"But sir!" An orderly cried only to have Kuno knock him over.

"I am the Noble Tatewaki Kuno, scion of the Kuno home, and as befits my station I demand you release my personage and return thusly mine hand so that I may slay the foul sorcerer Saotome!"

Everyone within hearing distance, which was quite easy as he was screaming it, were shocked as in the middle of the hospital, he was screaming that he wanted to kill someone.

"Mr. Kuno, you should not say such things!"

"I shall speak as I like!"

"But you are…"

"Silence! I the great… blue… thun…der…" Kuno slowly fell to the floor revealing a nurse standing behind him with a hypodermic needle in her hand. With the true blunder now sleeping, several large orderlies arrived, and carried the wannabe samurai into a special, triple padded room made specifically for him.

"Sasuke," A feminine voice called from her hospital bed.

"I'm here mistress," the ninja said as he suddenly appeared in the room from the window.

"Sasuke, I… I require information." She said sounding subdued.

"What kind?"

"Ranma-sa… I mean Ranma… is it true? Is he really the pig-tailed girl?" The small ninja ducked his head at that. "You know the truth."

"Ah… yes mistress… on both accounts." He said softly and then sighed. "Shortly after you and your brother became interested in Ranma I was able to observe the change."

"So you saw Ranma change into the girl?"

"I have…"

"And you never told me."

"I… I tried mistress… but…"

Kodachi wanted to be angry, but when she rubbed her face, she ran her hand over her scar, which calmed her down. "At once time, I would have become rather angry." With her finger still tracing her scar, even without looking at it, she knew where it began, and where it ended.

"I'm sorry mistress, I should've tried harder. I should've…"

"That's enough," she said softly. "Something happened… something happened to me…" she continued to caress the scar on her face as she spoke softly. "I am not sure how to explain it, but my long night has ended… and… and I am not sure where to go from here."

To be Continued…


End file.
